Karnataka withholds privatisation of Mysore Sugars

Last week, when Mr. Bommai met the farmers, he had assured of an amicable solution.

The State Government on Monday announced that it would withhold moves to privatise the loss-making The Mysore Sugars Company Ltd. while an earlier cabinet decision to privatise would be reviewed based on an expert committee recommendation. It also announced that the factory would commence crushing from next season.

The announcement came from Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai soon after he chaired a nearly three-hour-long high-level meeting with farmers’ representatives and elected representatives from Mandya district here. Ministers J.C. Madhuswamy, Shankarpati Munenakoppa, Narayan Gowda and S.T. Somashekar were also present.

The privatisation move of the only state-owned sugar factory in the State that is nearly a century old has come under intense opposition from Janata Dal (Secular) and Congress while farmers had been staging dharna for weeks in Mandya.