Farmers hail govt decision to reopen Nizam Sugars

NIZAMABAD: People in Nizamabad district, especially farmers on Thursday expressed happiness over deputy chief minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka’s assurance to reopen the Nizam Deccan Sugar Limited (NDSL). In his budget speech, the Dy CM said the Congress government is committed to reopening the decades-old Nizam Sugars soon. Congress party assured to reopen Nizam Sugars during the Assembly and Parliament elections campaign. A committee led by IT minister D.Sridhar Babu will study the possibilities of reopening of the Nizam Deccan Sugar Factory. MLC T.Jeevan Reddy, Bodhan MLA P.Sudarshan Reddy, Medak MLA Mynampally Rohith are in the committee.

Nizam Sugar has a mother unit at Shakkarnagar in Bodhan and other units at Metpally and Medak. After TRS (now BRS) came to power, the management of NDSL declared lay-off and shut down operations of Nizam Sugars.

As a result, thousands of sugarcane farmers and sugar factory workers were directly and others indirectly affected. Lay-off was declared in December, 2014. Farmers were forced to switch over to paddy and other crops instead of sugarcane.

Following the statement of Dy CM, people believed that previous glory of Nizam Sugars would be revived. Speaking to Deccan Chronicle on Thursday, sugarcane farmer Sambashiava Rao said reopening of Nizam Sugars would boost the economy of Nizamabad district.