Zoning for Sugar Co-operatives

The financial involvement of the government of Maharashtra in the co-operative sugar factories in the state runs into thousands of crores of rupees but more than 80 per cent of them are running at losses. The state government appointed an expert committee to look into the problem and suggest remedial measures for dealing with sickness of these factories. One of the recommendations of the committee was the reintroduction of zoning. The writer, a member of the committee, argues in his 'Note of Dissent' on this recommendation that it is not the absence of zoning but the presence of deeply rooted financial and political involvement of the state government and the resultant inefficiency in these factories that is the root cause of the abject condition of these factories.