Sharad Pawar meets Amit Shah, raises political heat

Mumbai: The NCP chief Sharad Pawar on Tuesday met Union home and co-operation minister Amit Shah in New Delhi raising eyebrows in Maharashtra's political circles. However, Mr Pawar made it clear that the meeting pertained to  Sugar pricing and ethanol blending in Petrol. The meeting between Mr Pawar and Mr Shah lasted for close to 20 to 30 minutes.

The NCP chief was accompanied by party MP Sunil Tatkare, the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories chairman Jaiprakash Dandegaonkar and its MD Prakash Naiknavare. The NFCSF has also given a memorandum to Mr Shah that raised several issues related to the cooperative sugar sector.

Mr Pawar, who is also a former Union agriculture minister, congratulated Mr Shah for his appointment as the country's first co-operation minister. "Firstly, I congratulated Shri Amit Shah on being appointed as the first co-operation minister of India. During the meeting, we discussed the current sugar scenario of the country and problems occurring due to excessive sugar production. We brought to his notice the two most emergent and severe issues like MSP and permissions to set up Ethanol manufacturing units within the premises of sugar mills. We hope that these issues would be favourably considered & resolved at the earliest by Hon’ble Co-operation Minister (sic)," Mr Pawar said on his social media handle.

On July 17, the NCP chief had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the newly carved out co-operation ministry. In his closed-door meeting, Mr Pawar had given a letter to the Prime Minister pertaining to amendments in the Bank Regulatory Act to limit the rights of cooperative banks.