Members of the district unit of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha marched to the Deputy Commissioner’s office and staged a protest against the district administration and elected representatives of the district for their failure to get a positive response to their genuine demands here on Monday.
District KRRS president Ashok S. Yamkanmardi, who led the protest, said none of the sugar mills in both cooperative and private sectors had paid the sugarcane price as per the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) fixed at Rs.2,334 per tonne for the crushing year 2015-16. A sugar factory in Gokak taluk had not cleared its dues for the years 2013-14 and 2015-16. A sugar mill on Goa head not cleared its dues to the growers from Khanapur taluk and Kittur of Belagavi district, besides those from Karwar who had applied sugarcane last year.
Mr.Yamkanmardi said the government had turned a blind eye to the woes of the growers only to protect the interests of the sugar mills, whose management members were both in the ruling Congress and the principal opposition BJP.
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If the government continued to ignore farmers’ problems, the KRRS would launch an intensified agitation soon, he said.