Opposition party DMK on Thursday urged the Puducherry government to immediately convene a tri-partite meeting to fix the price of sugarcane at Rs. 3,000 per tonne and resolve issues concerning sugarcane farmers.
In a statement DMK convener M.A.S. Subramanian said that farmers were in a dilemma on whether they should harvest sugarcanes and supply it to the Government Cooperative Sugar Mill at Lingareddyapalayam since there was no concrete assurance from the government on the minimum support price it would offer to them.
Mr. Subramanian said that sugarcane farmers had incurred heavy loss and were not able to repay their debts to banks.
They were on the verge of committing suicide due to delay in convening the tri-partite meeting.
The government should immediately convene the committee meeting and fix a price of Rs. 3,000 per tonne of sugarcane in addition to an incentive of Rs. 200 per tonne of sugarcane.
The management had not paid salary and other benefits to staff and workers in the sugar mill for the last four months.
Mr. Rangasamy who is holding the portfolio of Cooperation had failed to take any steps to revamp the institutions.
AgitationThe DMK would mobilise farmers and stage an agitation if the government failed to convene the tri-partite meeting immediately, Mr. Subramanian added.