Employees of the Nizam Deccan Sugars Limited (NDSL) staged a protest at the company's factory in Telangana's Bodhan town on Friday, a day after the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) ordered the company to be liquidated. The NCLT order came after years of attempts to revive the factory proved futile.
The employees demanded that the state government take action to ensure that the NCLT judgement is reversed, and also said that as their future was uncertain, it was the responsibility of the government to provide them with alternate employment and clear pending salaries.
Once said to be the largest sugar factory in Asia, the NDSL was set up in 1936 by the erstwhile Nizam of Hyderabad on 16,000 acres of land. Popularly known as the Nizam Sugar Factory, it was profitable for decades before turning sick in the late nineties.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, newly-elected Nizamabad MP D Aravind dubbed Telangana Chief Minister the 'most intelligent, corrupt CM of this country' and claimed that it was the failure of successive governments in the state which led to the present situation.
He also said that KCR was not 'sincere' — either in reviving the factory or in taking over the factory, which would have helped hundreds of employees and sugarcane farmers whose lives depended on the factory.
In 2002, the government of N Chandrababu Naidu in united Andhra Pradesh handed the NDSL over to Delta Paper Company under a joint venture. Later, a legislative committee appointed by Naidu's successor YS Rajasekhar Reddy had recommended that the government should take over the factory. However, the recommendation could not be implemented due to death of Chief Minister and other subsequent developments.
During the agitation for a separate Telangana state, the TRS had promised to take over the factory and restore it to its former glory.
However, with no development on that front, the private management of the mill had approached the NCLT in 2017, seeking liquidation.