Rs 335 crore for two sugar mills run by Mahayuti leaders, weeks after Rs 18 crore row

The Maharashtra government has recently approved loans totaling Rs 335.32 crore for two cooperative sugar mills linked to leaders of the ruling Mahayuti, following a similar Rs 18 crore loan for a sugar factory associated with BJP MLA Abhimanyu Pawar. The assistance, granted through the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC), precedes the sugarcane crushing season and comes at a time when cooperative banks have become more stringent in lending to mills with outstanding defaults.

The Tatyasaheb Kore Warana Cooperative Sugar Factory, linked to MLA Vinay Kore, received a loan of Rs 160.37 crore, which the mill must utilize to clear its outstanding borrowings from the Kolhapur District Central Cooperative Bank and repay the NCDC loan within two years. The second approved loan of Rs 174.95 crore is for the Loknete Marutrao Ghule Patil Dnyaneshwar Cooperative Sugar Factory in Nevasa, also directed to use the funds to settle its outstanding loan.

These approvals come amid a trend of increased difficulty in obtaining loans from conventional cooperative banks due to defaults, prompting the state government to increasingly rely on the NCDC for support. The government is also reviewing previously rejected applications and facilitating new ones from financially stressed sugar mills.

Brief written by urgent.news from The Indian Express's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.