The brainchild of the Home Minister, the factory was set up in 1984 when 5,000 farmers formed a co-operative and raised over Rs 1 crore while Rs 10 crore was borrowed from banks.

Once considered the biggest among Maharashtra’s old sugar co-operatives, it mostly had Shivraj Patil’s relatives or supporters running it. The factory, which can produce 2 lakh metric tonnes of sugar annually, had few worries in its initial years.

But neglect, mismanagement and lack of modernisation began hurting it in the late 1990s, the present management admits. As a result, workers started deserting it and today, the massive structure spread over 300 acres in Nalegaon village is a collection of leaking pipes, outdated boilers and shoddy godowns.

Production is limited and the last time full salaries were paid was in 2003. The account books reflect the sorry state. During 2002-03, it had an accumulated loss of Rs 15.4 crore. During 2006-07 it grew to 46.85 crore. Debt stands at Rs 30 crore.

“We finally had to threaten the management and call a strike to wake them up,” said Ashok Tambolkar, a Jai Jawan employee and secretary of the district sugar workers’ union, referring to the acute crisis in 2005 when production stopped completely. “It was only then that matters reached the higher ups. Shailesh Patil started attending meetings and finally the board was dissolved, a new board was appointed and Dr Manikrao made chairman.”

Manikrao Patil, a medical doctor who is related to the Home Minister’s family and says he has been running the factory for the last two years “with the help of Shailesh”, is candid about the crisis. “We have incurred losses of about Rs 40 crore in the last 10 years due to mismanagement, corruption and all these reasons,” he told The Indian Express. The “earlier management”, for instance, would pay advances to “unreliable contractors” for harvesting and they would not complete their job, he said.

... contd.