A day after driving sugarcane-laden trucks into Belagavi’s Suvarna Soudha demanding payment of arrears from sugar factories, farmers from across Karnataka held a rally in Bengaluru to highlight their demands, and set a deadline of 15 days for Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy to meet them.
They had 30 demands, including immediate implementation of farm loan waiver, three-phase power for 12 hours, minimum support price (MSP) for a range of agri products, and payment of arrears to cane farmers. What had added fuel to the fire was the CM’s reference to a section of the protesting farmers as ‘goondas’ and a question posed to an agitating woman farmer that was deemed disrespectful.
Speaking after the farmers called a temporary truce, the CM said farmers’ issues — especially dues to cane farmers — would be addressed in the meeting on Tuesday.
