Bareilly: The land connected to the struggling Kesar Sugar Mill in Bareilly is successfully auctioned for ₹28.05 crore, whose revenue will be directed to settling long pending dues of the farmers.
The officials have confirmed that the land was attached near six months ago as recovery proceedings against the sugar mill for the failure to pay the dues. The auction was held in an open bid on Friday, which got competitive bidding and the top bid was ₹28.05 crore.
Joint Magistrate and Baheri Sub-Divisional Magistrate Ishita Kishore said that the decision came after several days of issuing the mill management warnings over the dues it had failed to pay. The mill had been earlier told by the authorities not to buy sugarcane unless it could make the payment to the sugarcane growers in time. The recovery process proceeded in accordance with the Revenue Recovery Rules with a detailed valuation of the property done by a special committee.
The administration had also taken stringent actions in the past such as registering an FIR against the mill for non-payment of its dues. Besides, the cane procurement zone of the sugar mill was cut by a third and its crushing capacity was shifted to another sugar mill to avert any possible financial irregularities.
The auction process was supervised by the senior officials of district, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue), officials of sugarcane department, farmer unions etc. to ensure transparency in the process.
The mill had not paid dues for 11 days for cane procurement, which amounts to about ₹17.6 crore, and the outstanding dues stood at nearly ₹160 crore, according to officials. Authorities said there was a clear message in the action that the payment to farmers would not be delayed or denied and stringent recovery action will be continued against those who default.