Farmers will hold state-wide protests from Thursday seeking fair price for sugarcane.
Farmers will hold state-wide protests from Thursday seeking fair price for sugarcane.
Their association president Kuruburu Shantakumar said they were left with no alternative after their talks with chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda failed on Wednesday. As a last-ditch effort, Gowda, late at night, tried to pacify the farmers protesting at the meeting hall in Vidhana Soudha. He began talks with farmer leaders in the afternoon. But his assurances did not satisfy the farmers. They demanded a fair price for their produce and arrears from the sugar units.
They alleged that the state government was supporting the factory owners as industries minister Murugesh Nirani and horticulture minister Umesh Katti own a chain of sugar units.
“To facilitate the ministers, the BJP is supporting the sugar factory owners,” they alleged.
Gowda told farmers that the government took three decisions. First, they would get their arrears within two months. Second, for 2011-12, the sugarcane price rate would be increased to `1,800 per ton. Cutting and transporting charges would be increased to Rs400. Farmers would get Rs2,200 per ton of sugarcane.
Third, the government would form a committee including farmers and their leaders under the chairmanship of agriculture minister which would decide on the fair price and related issues.
The farmers rejected Gowda’s three-point plan saying the rate offered was the same as last year. They demanded Rs2,200 per ton of sugarcane and Rs400 for cutting and transportation. Factory owners owed them arrears worth Rs420 crore, farmers said. But the government contested this saying it was only Rs157.57 crore.
Problem started when Gowda told the media that the meeting was fruitful and that the farmers had agreed to the proposal. He said he would lead a delegation to Delhi to meet central ministers. Also he would not bow to any pressure from the sugar lobby or his party collegues.
Angered by Gowda’s statement, farmers’ president Kuruburu Shantakumar announced that farmers would go on a state-wide protest from Thursday until the government provided them relief.
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