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By:

Rajendra Joshi

3 December 2024 at 9:20:26 am

Centre pushes for early sugarcane crushing

Mills seek special subsidy Kolhapur: Despite an estimated 30-40 lakh tonnes of sugar being available in excess of domestic demand, the Centre is stepping up efforts to keep sugar prices under control. The Union Food Ministry has urged Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka to advance the 2026-27 sugarcane crushing season so that fresh sugar reaches the market before the existing stock is exhausted. Sugar mills, however, say an early start will come at a cost. They are seeking special...

Centre pushes for early sugarcane crushing

Mills seek special subsidy Kolhapur: Despite an estimated 30-40 lakh tonnes of sugar being available in excess of domestic demand, the Centre is stepping up efforts to keep sugar prices under control. The Union Food Ministry has urged Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka to advance the 2026-27 sugarcane crushing season so that fresh sugar reaches the market before the existing stock is exhausted. Sugar mills, however, say an early start will come at a cost. They are seeking special financial assistance to compensate for the likely fall in sugar recovery and the reduction in cane weight that could result from crushing in October. India produced around 280 lakh tonnes of sugar last season. The season began with stocks of nearly 50 lakh tonnes, while annual domestic consumption is estimated at around 280 lakh tonnes. With about 35 lakh tonnes expected to remain in stock by September 30, the Centre wants the new season’s production to start flowing into the market without waiting for the traditional crushing cycle. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka account for nearly 80 per cent of India’s sugar production. The Union Food Ministry has therefore written to the chief ministers of the three states, asking them to bring forward the start of the 2026-27 crushing season. The push comes against the backdrop of a sharp movement in sugar prices. Ex-mill prices had earlier climbed to around Rs 68 per kg, pushing retail prices close to Rs 80 per kg. Following a series of measures by the Centre, ex-mill prices have since declined to around Rs 41 per kg. Yet, the government is looking at further measures to bring prices down and ensure that stocks move into the market. One such measure has been the approval of imports of one million tonnes of raw sugar. Since initial applications covered only around eight lakh tonnes, the Centre has invited applications for the remaining quota. It has also reduced the permissible stockholding limit for traders from 400 tonnes to 200 tonnes. The next major point of discussion will be the meeting convened by Union Food and Public Distribution Secretary Sanjeev Chopra with the sugar industry in New Delhi on September 8. The secretaries of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka have also been invited. West Indian Sugar Mills Association (WISMA) president B. B. Thombre said the Centre was pushing for crushing to begin around the middle of October. Traditionally, most mills in Maharashtra begin operations around November 15, largely because sugarcane harvesting labour becomes available only after Diwali. The industry is, however, willing to explore an early start between October 20 and 25. But early crushing could have significant implications. According to Thombre, sugar recovery could fall by around 1.5 percentage points, while the weight of sugarcane supplied by farmers could decline by 10-15 per cent. The industry will therefore seek special assistance for cane crushed between October 15 and November 15. At the September 8 meeting, it plans to demand a subsidy of Rs 500 per tonne for sugar mills and Rs 300 per tonne directly for sugarcane farmers.

Mumbai’s High-Stakes Civic War

In the world’s most frenetic city, controlling the BMC means controlling the future.

Beneath Mumbai’s glittering skyline and frantic pace, an intense battle is unfolding for the control of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), India’s richest civic body. Long the fiefdom of the undivided Shiv Sena, whose founder Balasaheb Thackeray embodied its Marathi identity, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) now covets it.


With an annual budget exceeding Rs. 52,000 crore, control of the BMC is much more than municipal governance. It is about commanding resources and positioning for the future.


Since 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah have transformed the BJP into a relentless electoral machine, seeking to dominate not only Parliament but every rung of Indian governance. Their goal now is to consolidate power at the grassroots, beginning with urban strongholds like Mumbai.


Success has not come easily. It took a decade after forming the national government to install a BJP Chief Minister in Delhi. Maharashtra, too, has seen BJP-led governments, but the mayor’s seat in Mumbai has remained out of reach - a gap that Devendra Fadnavis, the party’s most formidable leader in the state, is determined to close.


The Shiv Sena’s long grip on Mumbai has weakened since Balasaheb’s death in 2012 and its 2022 split into two factions – one led by Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena (UBT) and the second, by Deputy CM Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena. The split has opened new opportunities for the BJP but also new complications.


Case in point: Eknath Shinde’s recent meeting with Raj Thackeray, leader of theMaharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). Despite having zero electoral clout, Raj continues to have a significant sway in Mumbai's Marathi heartland.


His growing warmth with Shinde may signal a political chess move to cut into BJP’s voter base or bargain for more municipal control. Fadnavis isn’t taking any chances.


To tighten BJP’s grip on Mumbai, there’s buzz around a change in the city’s partyleadership. Pravin Darekar, a senior BJP leader with roots in Mumbai’scooperative banking sector, is being seen as a frontrunner for the post of Mumbai BJP president.


Darekar reportedly has a good working relationship with Raj Thackeray. This could help Fadnavis neutralize any growing rapport between Shinde and Raj.


While Fadnavis may be willing to cede the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) to ally Ajit Pawar, Mumbai and Nagpur are non-negotiable. The latter civic body, especially, is Fadnavis’s stronghold - politically, emotionally and symbolically.


Behind the scenes, the BJP’s ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is quietly observing the run-up to the civic polls. Its influence in shaping public discourse and mobilizing workers is crucial. RSS leader Bhayyaji Joshi’s controversial statement in Ghatkopar wherein he remarked that not everyone in Mumbai needed to speak Marathi shows how carefully crafted narratives can spark debates, define identity politics and influence electoralbehaviour.


The RSS knows how to move without making noise. In a city stitched together by dozens of languages and loyalties, it is all about timing, about shaping sentiment quietly.


The Sena (UBT), battered but not broken, still leans heavily on Mumbai’s civic machinery. Lose the BMC, and the party bleeds money, power and relevance. Fadnavis and the BJP understand this better than anyone.


On the other side, Sena (UBT) leader Aaditya Thackeray is trying to redraw the fight as a referendum on ambition. He has accused the BJP of mismanaging the city, of letting Mumbai drift while other states build economic hubs like Gujarat’s GIFT City. His bet is that voters will want a city that thinks bigger, not just fights dirtier.


But for now, the promises of transformation are background noise. The BMC election is about command: who runs the streets, the pipes, the schools - and who gets to decide who eats first.


The BJP, fresh off a commanding victory in the 2024 state elections, must now prove it can manage not just its enemies, but its allies too. The Mahayuti coalition that won the Assembly could just as easily splinter when faced with the slower, messier grind of municipal politics.


Young voters will have a hand in what happens next. For them, the BMC is not an abstraction. It is the quality of the water they drink, the time it takes to get to work, the job they may or may not find. In Mumbai, politics is infrastructure. And infrastructure is survival.


In a city where the lights rarely go out, neither does the fight for power.

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