Karnataka - Belgaum   

Sangha demands minimum price for sugarcane

Staff Correspondent

`Profits of the industry are not reaching the grower'

BELGAUM: The district unit of the Karnataka Rajya Raith Sangha has decided to stage a "dharna" in front of office of the Deputy Commissioner on Saturday demanding a minimum price of Rs. 1,800 a tonne of sugarcane supplied to sugar factories.

District convenor of the sangha Rudrappanna Mokashi and other leaders have said sugarcane continued to be a major commercial crop of the country. The sugar industry was biggest in the world, providing employment to a number of people all over the country.

Yet the profits and benefits of the industry were not reaching the grower and supplier of raw material. The grower continued to remain poor while those who exploited his crop became richer. Unscrupulous politicians exploited cooperative sugar factories for their own personal growth, financially and politically thanks to the exploitative rules framed by British rulers.

They said there were many sugar factories utilising by-products from sugarcane supplied to them to manufacture liquor and other products. However, the managements were not prepared to share the benefits or profits earned from such by-products which ran into crores of rupees.

Farmers had lost faith in the managements and the Government, which was more keen in protecting the interests of the managements than the farmers for reasons not difficult to understand. The farmers were helpless and left with no way but to launch struggle to get their rightful due.

They also sympathised with the employees of the sick Raibag Sahakara Sakkare Karkhane who had been demanding wages and reopening of the factory.

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