The Maharashtra government has issued notices to cooperative sugar mills in the State, which have defaulted on loans of over Rs. 1,200 crore, an official said.

 

A few District Central Cooperative (DCC) banks are facing a financial crisis due to non-repayment of loans given to cooperative sugar mills controlled by leaders from the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party, the official said.

 

State Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar has also directed the cooperative department to come up with a White Paper, listing the loans taken by these cooperative institutions and the amounts repaid so far.

 

A senior official from the co-operative and marketing department said five DCC banks are in a financial crisis after lending money to 11 cooperative sugar mills controlled by “big” leaders from the Congress and the NCP. These banks are in Solapur, Wardha, Nashik, Buldhana and Osmanabad districts.

 

The official said, “Sugar mills have not repaid loans worth Rs. 1,223.93 crore taken from the DCC banks. These banks are now having liquidity issues and even faced action from the Reserve Bank of India. There are several such cases. When we came to know about this tactic, we paid the rest of the share capital to all cooperative sugar and textile mills. Now we have started asking them for repayment.”

 

Mr. Mungantiwar said, “Sugar and textile mills have taken soft loans from the State government and not paid them back. The Congress and the NCP ruled the State for the maximum number of years. They also controlled the cooperative sector and delayed repayment of the loan amount and its interest. People should know the truth how they have looted State funds.”

 

However, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant said the decision to publish the White Paper shows the desperation of the BJP as its governance has “failed” on all fronts.