Sugarcane growers’ association threatens indefinite dharna in front of CM’s residence

June 30 deadline set for mills to clear dues to growers

The Karnataka Sugarcane Growers Association president Kurubur Shanthakumar has threatened to organise a massive indefinite dharna in front of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s residence in Bengaluru in the first week of July while setting June 30 as the deadline to ensure that all sugar mills cleared their outstanding dues to sugarcane growers.

Announcing this at a press conference here on Wednesday, he said a total of Rs.1,880 crore was due from the sugar mills to the growers in the State since the crushing year 2013-14 as per the Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) fixed by the Union government.

Giving a further break-up, he said Rs.280 crore was for the year 2013-14, Rs.96 crore for 2014-15 and Rs.1,484 crore for 2015-16. In respect of Belagavi district, which has the highest number of sugar mills and known as the sugar bowl of Karnataka, Rs.132 crore was due for the year 2013-14, Rs.58 crore for 2014-15 and Rs.545 crore for 2015-16.

He said these outstanding dues were despite repeated assurances by the Chief Minister and court directions following long drawn agitations by the growers.

Low production

Mr. Shanthakumar said the prospective sugarcane cultivation for 2016-17 had come down by 40% of the expected yield. As of now more than 2 lakh tonnes of cane had already dried up due to the preceding two drought years in Bidar and other parts of the State. The ‘indifferent’ attitude of both the ruling Congress and Opposition parties to ensure that the sugarcane bill dues were paid to the growers had forced the growers to shift to other crops.

Sharing profits

He said the government must implement the State Advisory Price Act and strictly direct the sugar mills to share their profits on 70:30 ratio between growers and mills. The sugar prices had gone up to Rs.3,500-Rs.4000 per quintal in the market, which was much less when the crop was procured from farmers.

PMFBY

He also urged the Centre to include sugarcane crop under the Prime Minister’s Fasal Bima Yojana.

FRP for 2016-17

Mr. Shanthakumar said the Centre had done ‘injustice’ to the growers by retaining the preceding FRP of Rs.2,300 per tonne of sugarcane at 9.5% recovery and an additional Rs.246 per tonne for every additional increase of one per cent of recovery for the current year 2016-17. The Centre, considering the plight of farmers, should increase it to at least Rs.2,800 and Rs.300 respectively.

Of the total 1,385 farmers’ suicides during last two years, 214 were sugarcane growers, Mr. Shanthakumar said.