We've done the best for sugarcane farmers'

Shyam Sundar Vattam| NT

Bengaluru:

Minister for Sugar and Textile Shankar Patil Munenkoppa is someone who is confident that he has done a better job than his predecessors in the previous Congress government while ensuring that owners of sugar mills make payments to sugarcane far mers in time.

He claims that for the first time, 98.8 percent of farmers have re - ceived payment from factories. In a freew heeling interview with Shyam Sundar Vattam of News Trail, Mr Patil said f a r m e r s have stopped hitting the streets for the last two years since they were paid money immediately.

This year, an additional Rs 6000 crore worth of sugarcane has been crushed, taking the total crushing to worth Rs 19,634 crore which is a record. ''The previous governments were not talking to factories and farmers over dues but now I have taken everyone into confidence,'' he said.

There are thirty new proposals for opening of new sugar factories and permission has been given to establish 10, he added Mr Patil also spoke of his plans for the textile sector and said that to generate employment in both urban and rural areas, the government proposes to establish a textile park at Karkala in Udupi.

In Mysuru, known for its iconic silk sarees, Patil is planning a silk cluster at a cost of Rs 50 cr. This will not only generate jobs for local people but will also fetch income for the government. The government is also planning to focus on the surgical textile sector involving the manufacture of masks and other surgical items. Two acres of land at the proposed textile park will be given to surgical textile manufacturing companies.