Karwar: The District President of the State Sugarcane Growers’ Association Sandeep Kumar Bobati has demanded that the Deputy commissioner should hold a meeting with the local farmers and factory owners to fix the fair price for the farmers regarding the payment of dues of the sugarcane growers of Haliyala Taluk and fixing the price of sugarcane this year.
Addressing a press conference at the City’s District press club, he said that ‘EID Pyari Sugar Factory’ is offering the lowest price to sugarcane growers in the State. Since the irrigation system in Haliyala is not proper, the sugarcane reaches the factory after drying. Due to this, he demanded that they need to fix the price of sugarcane immediately and get local sugarcane on priority.
“There is a rule that the farmers and the factory have to sign an agreement before the sugarcane is harvested. But without following all these they started the factory, the farmers did protest against it but the Tahasildar and the police stopped us. AC has informed that he will come to the meeting. But the problem is serious that 2016-17 per tonne of sugarcane has been kept at Rs. 305, which has not been credited to about 21 Crore farmers, he said.
“Now they are doing a bad strategy of reducing the price of sugarcane. The water discharged from the factory has turned black and the surrounding area is unfit for use. So he demanded that the Deputy Commissioner should come and hold a meeting.
The prices of all things including fertiliser and labour have increased and the price of sugar has also increased. But last time only Rs. 2592 per tonne was given. Due to this, the farmers have suffered a huge loss. Parry factory officials are cheating to the farmers, he alleged.
Taluk President Shankar Kajagara said that due to the heavy rainfall, other crops including paddy, corn have been severely damaged. The pumps installed in the pit have been washed away and still no solution in sight. The DC should have come immediately and held a meeting with the farmers and factory officials and demanded to resolve the problem.
Nagendra, Mohan Gurav, Baliram More, Pisyappa Sinhalikar, Parasurama and others were present.
