The ongoing agitation in Mysuru and other centres by farmers seeking a higher Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane will shift from the district centres to Bengaluru from November 22, Tuesday.
This was announced by the Karnataka Sugarcane Cultivators Association president Kurubur Shanthakumar here on Friday. He said a 24x7 protest will be staged in front of the Chief Minister’s residence to press for their demands.
Mr. Shanthakumar lashed out at the State government for adopting delaying tactics in announcing an higher FRP and said that though the Minister for Sugar Shankar Patil Munenakoppa had said a few days ago that the farmers will receive ‘’good news’’ there has been deafening silence and no announcement has been made. ‘’The farmers are being taken for a ride and cajoled to give up their agitation but we will not relent’, he added.
Though sugarcane farmers are agitating in support of their demand since the last 4 months, the government was indifferent to the plight of the farmers and was adopting dilatory tactics, said Mr.Shanthakumar.
He said there were over 3 million sugarcane cultivators in the State and the government professing to be ‘’pro-farmers’’ was apathetic to their grievances.
‘’Though the yield or sugar recovery in Punjab was lower than Karnataka, the farmers in that State were receiving a higher FR at the rate of ₹3,800 per tonne against ₹3,050 per ton in Karnataka. The FRP was ₹3,500 in Uttar Pradesh, ₹4,400 in Gujarat while in Tamil Nadu the farmers were not burdened with transportation charges’’, said Mr. Shanthakumar. Hence the association demands an FRP of at least ₹3,500 per tonne in Karrnataka, he added.
The association members also pointed out that there was a delay of about 16 months to 18 months in crushing of sugarcane as a result of which the rate of sugar recovery per tonne would also decline and this was having a negative bearing on the farmers’ finances.
Highlighting issues with regard to farm loan, the association said that the banks should delink loans from CIBIL scores as the repayment of agricultural loans tends to get delayed owing to various factors including vagaries of nature, delay in procurement etc.
District unit president of the association P. Somashekar, Bardanapura Nagaraj and others were present.
