Amit Shah blames Sharad Pawar for closure of cooperative sugar mills in Maha
There were 202 sugar mills in the state out of which, only 101 are left now. Why did so many mills shut down? Shah asked
Union home minister Amit Shah on Friday took a dig at Nationalist Congress Party/NCP (SP) leader Sharad Pawar, questioning why most of the cooperative sugar mills in Maharashtra had closed down. Shah was at a public rally in Vita, Sangli, to support Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Sanjay Kaka Patil. Addressing the rally, Shah said that Sharad Pawar (saheb) hails from the sugar belt in western Maharashtra. “I want to raise questions about the cooperative movement in Maharashtra. There were 202 sugar mills in the state out of which, only 101 are left now. Why did so many mills shut down? Especially when you (Sharad Pawar saheb) were the minister of agriculture for 10 years. What did you do?” Shah questioned.
The union home minister also said that there were 34 district cooperative banks out of which only three to four are left now. The remaining were run by administrators. “Sharad Pawar (saheb), why were the banks run by administrators?” Shah asked. Shah informed that the Narendra Modi-led government had waived off ₹15,000 crore worth of income tax of the cooperative sugar mills.
Shah further said that the Tembhu and Mhaisal irrigation projects in Sangli were pending since long. Once the BJP came to power in Maharashtra, it released huge funds for both the projects due to which vast swathes of land in Sangli finally came under irrigation.
