Belagavi district police have brokered peace with Athani farmers who had stopped over 300 trucks and tractors with around 7,000 tonnes of sugarcane on the way to sugar factories.
Police officers held discussions with the protesters through the night on Tuesday and the last goods carrier left for the factory on Wednesday morning.
The vehicles were stopped at four places, including Jewargi–Sankeshwar State highway and Belagavi–Athani road, for the last five days. They were lined up for over 5 km on the State highway. Though the Athani police had managed to get the vehicles lined up on one side of the road, commuters on the road suffered because of the congestion.
Farmers said factories had not paid them their arrears and were now allegedly buying sugarcane from growers in Maharashtra. Their anger was mostly towards a private unit owned by Srimanth Patil, MLA. They also alleged that some followers of Mr. Patil had manhandled a few protesters.
Superintendent of Police Sudheer Kumar Reddy said a breakthrough was achieved after a meeting chaired by the Chief Minister in Bengaluru on Tuesday gave a message of the government instructing factories to release all arrears.
A team led by Deputy Superintendent of Police Ramagonda Basaragi spoke to farmers and factory officials to allow the goods carriers to reach the factory and to start crushing sugarcane.
