Patna, March 24: It’s a “sugary”, but not so sweet, fire that burns in fields around Marhowrah sugar factory in Chapra.

Hundreds of farmers in the area have been burning sugarcane to protest an NDA dispensation that promised to revive the factory by 2007. Marhowrah is one of the first sugar mills in the country.

Marhowrah falls in the constituency that railway minister Lalu Prasad represents in the Lok Sabha. But farmers’ ire is directed more towards who they see as the “real sinners” — the high-profile BJP spokesman and former Union minister for civil aviation Rajiv Pratap Rudi and chairman of the UP-based JHV Distillery and Sugar Ltd, Jawahar Jaiswal.

Rudi and Jaiswal working in collaboration with each other asked the farmers to grow sugarcane over an area of 65,000 acres while promising to revive the factory by the end of 2007. They promised to buy the crops at the rate of Rs 98 to Rs 110 per quintal.

They also roped in state sugarcane minister Nitish Mishra to join them at a revival function supporting their venture at the outset of 2007.

However, with the crops ready and no buyers in sight — the farmers are now desperate.

They recently barged into the Assembly premises in sugarcane-loaded bullock carts under the leadership of local MLA Lalbabu Rai. At present farmers have decided to lodge a case against Rudi and the management of JHV Distillery and invade the Bihar capital with more sugarcane-loaded bullock carts.

“We have decided to lodge a case against Rudi and JHV Distillery shortly and take a cart procession to Patna to highlight our plight,” said N.K. Singh, the president of the Marhaura Anumandal Ganna Krishi Vikas Manch.

The Manch is a forum that farmers formed to carry out agitation against what they see as “cheating”.

“I don’t know what to do with the sugarcane crop grown on the five acres of land I own. I am neck deep in loan,” said Mohan Singh, a farmer of Akuchak in Taraiya block. Bipin Singh of the same village shares a similar plight.

“Sugarcane production over one acre costs at least Rs 10,000. You can imagine the loss,” said the president of the sugarcane-growing farmer’s union.

The Board of Industrial Finance and Restructuring settled the assets and liability of the closed factory to JHV Distillery in 2006. The distillery, in co-operation with Rajiv Pratap Rudi, promised to start one of the oldest factories by the end of the 2007.

The state sugarcane minister, Nitish Mishra, told The Telegraph: “Yes, there the farmers are in genuine trouble. We have decided to summon the JHV management to find out what had gone wrong with the promise after the Assembly session ends.”

He, however, said that the state does not have a direct control over the factory, as it was handed over to private entrepreneurs.

Rudi on his part said: “Banks have delayed releasing funds due to glut in the sugar sector. Our claim for funds is lying with the Union Bank and the Punjab National Bank. We hope that the banks will release the funds soon.”

Jaiswal, too, said: “We will open the factory after banks release the money.”

The fact remains that there are no signs of the factory re-opening. And farmers who feel cheated and trapped in debt are up in arms.