Sugarcane growers from Hosapete taluk, on Wednesday staged a ‘dharna’ in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here to protest against non-payment of their dues to the tune of Rs. 54 crore by the Hosapete-based India Sugar Refineries (ISR) Factory.
Gosula Bharmappa, President of the Hosapete taluk branch of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha, told presspersons that the ISR Factory had to pay Rs. 26 crore for the cane procured for the current season. In addition, there had been arrears to the tune of Rs. 24 crores pertaining to the year 2003-04 and another Rs. four crore of arrears for the year 2013-14.
He accused the Factory management of suddenly going back on the terms agreed to pay Rs. 2,290 per ton of sugarcane, as fixed by the Union government for the year 2014-15. "The crushing operations commenced on December 18 and so far the factory has crushed around 1.44 lakh tons of sugarcane. In turn, the factory has paid Rs. 2,290 per ton for sugarcane procured up to January 2 which came to about Rs. five crores. After that, the factory management has informed the farmers that it would be able to pay only Rs. 1,800 per tonne, stating that it was in financial crisis. For the current year itself the factory has to pay dues to farmers to the tune of Rs. 26 crore", he alleged.
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“If our demand is not conceded we would be compelled to intensify our agitation”, he cautioned.