Coop Sugar Mills Ink MoU with private units

VELLORE: In a bid to help cane growers affected by the ongoing sugar mill workers strike, the Cooperative Sugar Mills in Vellore, Ambur and Tirupattur have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with two private sugar mills in Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh and Kancheepuram, to crush sugarcane harvested during this season.“We have signed an MoU with Sagar Mill in Chittoor and SV Sugar Mill in Kancheepuram to crush 35,000 metric tonnes of sugarcane from Vellore, 18,000 metric tonnes from Ambur and 38,000 tonnes from Tirupattur areas in the district. The two private sugar mills have a crushing capacity of 2,500 metric tonnes of sugarcane per day,” said S Thiruguna Iyyapadurai, Special Officer of Ambur Cooperative Sugar Mill during a farmers’ grievance meeting held recently.The sugar mills have already diverted around 3,000 tonnes of sugar cane to the SV Sugar Mill. “From next week, the remaining sugar cane harvested in areas including Vellore, Tirupattur and Ambur, will be diverted to the two private sugar mills and the crushing will be carried out in full swing,” he said.Before the sugar mill workers struck work citing disparity in salary, 85 per cent of the cane had already been harvested and crushed in the cooperative sugar mills in the district. “The remaining 15 per cent of the sugar cane would be diverted to the two private sugar mills and crushed within 15 days,” added Iyyapadurai.The administration of the cooperative sugar mills in the district had also deployed two yard supervisors to keep track of the crushing in the private mills. “We will deposit the cash in the central cooperative banks, which in turn, will deposit it in the accounts of the cane growers in primary cooperative banks. The farmers need not take any extra effort to transport the cane or sell it,” he further stated.