Slow start to cane crushing at Palwal coop mill

The government-owned Cooperative Sugar Mill here is yet to pick up cane-crushing pace. It has been able to crush less than 10,000 quintals of cane in the past two days, which is much lower than its capacity, it is reported.

The mill was inaugurated on November 24 by Gaurav Gautam, Minister of State for Youth Empowerment, Entrepreneurship, Sports and Law and Legislative Affairs.

Sources in the administration said the mill might be facing technical issues or problems related to the initial stage of launch. While the capacity of the mill is 2,200 TCD (tonnes of cane per day), at present, it crushed around 8,000 quintals of cane till this morning.

"It would have crushed at least 15,000 quintals of cane in the past two days, if it was functioning at a normal pace," said Mahender Singh Chauhan, a representative of the Sanyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM).

A large number of farmers may be going in for the sowing of late varieties of wheat or rabi crops after harvesting sugarcane, he said, adding that the mill had the history of developing snags in the initial stages, even though it had been upgraded at a cost of over Rs 20 crore a few years ago.

Established as the Palwal Cooperative Sugar Mill Society in 1973, cane crushing was started in 1984-85 with a capacity of 1,250 TCD.

While the sugarcane area of the mill is spread over a radius of 32 km, it had crushed 25.56 lakh quintals of sugarcane and produced 2.58 lakh quintals of sugar, with 9.97 per cent recovery last season. The crushing target is about 28 lakh quintals this time, according to officials.

Vishal, MD of the mill, claimed that the mill had been functioning properly. He said the pace of crushing was dependent on the supply of cane. The pace was likely to pick up soon, he said.

The DC, Dr Harish Vashisht, said while the mill had been functioning normally, it was likely to reach its full capacity soon, he added.