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Around 50 km to the east of Varanasi lies the Bhadohi district. I had heard a lot about the sugar mill at Bhadohi's Aurai town, so I decided to pay a visit to the Kashi Sahakari Chini Mill, as it was popularly known.
Established in 1971, the mill used to produce the highest amount of sugar in the state back in the day. However, as the government couldn't keep managing the mill's operation, it slowly went into losses, and finally closed down in 2007.
This derailed the livelihood of hundreds of sugar cane farmers from several neighbouring districts, who were dependent on the sugar processing plant.
Upon reaching Aurai town, I found that the sugar mill had now been turned into a cow shelter with several cows housed inside.
I then came across a resident of the village named Lal Chand Yadav at a paan shop nearby, who told me what they had been going through over the last 15 years, since the closure of the mill.
Yadav told me that there was a time when the sugar mill used to give employment to thousands of people and that the district was once prosperous. But in 2007, he said, everything was disrupted by the closure of the mill. He added that the farmers no longer cultivated sugar cane in the region as they used to.
Suresh Prasad, a farmer who was at the same shop, said that he and others have been asking the government to reopen the sugar mill, but none of the governments since 2007 had paid any attention to their demands.
Suresh further told me that the abandoned factory has now been converted into a gaushala, and in that too, several cows were dying.
In September 2020, Uttar Pradesh's BJP government had decided to convert the sugar mill into a biofuel plant, but the work doesn't seem to have begun yet. The locals, however, just want the sugar mill to be revived.
The election to the Aurai Vidhan constituency is scheduled for 7 March. Raju Kanojia, a resident of the village, said, "Whichever party comes to power, please restart the sugar mill. This will give us employment and restore the livelihood of many."
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