Members of the Karnataka Kabbu Belegarara Sangha staged a dharna in front of the MP, Bhagwant Khuba’s house, protesting against the sugar policies of the Union government, here on Thursday. The farmers sat in front of the MP’s house for an hour and raised slogans against the government.
They demanded a ban on the import of sugar and sought a hike in the price of sugarcane paid to farmers. If that cannot be done, the government should levy an import duty of 45 per cent, they said.
Protestors urged the Centre to ensure that farmers get remunerative prices for sugarcane based on the formula suggested by the M.S. Swaminathan Committee.
They said that the three cooperative factories and two private factories in the district had paid only Rs. 1,500 a tonne of sugarcane supplied as against Rs. 1,700 paid by factories in other districts.
Their other demands included waiver of loans, hiking crop loss compensation to Rs. 1 lakh per acre, giving jobs to dependents of farmers who committed suicide, minimum 10 hours of quality power to irrigation pumpsets, nationalisation of factories that refuse to pay the fair and remunerative (FAR) price to farmers and announcement of FAR price before start of crushing operations.
Karnataka Pranta Raitha Sangha president Maruti Manpade, and other leaders including Subhash Patil, Nagashetty Lanjavade, Vithal Metre, and Baburao Hallikhed were present.
