The Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha headed by Kodihalli Chandrashekhar has called off the State-wide agitation it had planned to organise in different ways on Thursday – to pressure the government to waive crop loans and fix sugarcane price of Rs.3,500 per tonne for the current crushing year 2016-17, thanks to the government allegedly tightening its noose over farmers’ agitations.
A senior leader of the KRRS told The Hindu over telephone that the decision to withdraw the agitation was due to the police arresting and registering various cases against the farmers, as it did since Sunday and on Monday to prevent farmers participating in the protest in front of the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha, the venue of the ongoing winter session of the State legislature. It was for this reason that the turnout of cane growers for the protest on Monday was much less than expected.
The police arrested the leaders and workers soon after the meeting with the Sugar Minister H.S. Mahadev Prasad ended in a stalemate on Tuesday. The farmers were arrested after they came out of the meeting hall at the Deputy Commissioner’s office to stage a rasta roko.
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He said the government’s attitude towards farmers and using force to silence their voice was a clear indication of its “growing intolerance towards the common man.” But, the government was under the wrong impression that such coercive methods would discourage and demoralise the growers, he said. The KRRS would soon launch its agitation. “We are working out a plan to give a ‘shock treatment’ to the government before the winter session concludes.”
The planned agitation and prior information to the police authorities had helped the latter to arrest the farmers and thwart their agitation. This time the Sangha would not announce any date or time for the agitation, he added.