BIJAPUR: Bharatiya Janata Party Raitha Morcha has urged the Government to resume the release of water into the Indi Branch Canal (IBC) to save sugarcane crops from withering.

In a statement released here on Wednesday, president of the morcha's district unit Ashok Allapur said that such an action was essential to save over 10 lakh tonnes of sugarcane.

Mr. Allapur said that according to statistics given by the Agriculture Department, sugarcane had been grown on 15,362 hectares, most of which was in the IBC's command area. While some farmers had made their own arrangements to water their crops, most of them were dependant solely on water from the canal.

He accused the Government of taking contradictory decisions. While on the one hand it had directed sugar factories to purchase excess sugarcane grown in the command area of the IBC up to the end of May, on the other it had stopped the release of water on April 15. This had caused the crops to wither. If the Government was really interested in continuing the harvesting of cane, it should ensure that the release of water into the canal was resumed, he said.

`Not prompt'

Mr. Allapur also said that the factories had not been promptly implementing the order issued by the Government on the issue. Over 10 factories had been given deadlines to complete crushing of cane and had also been told to purchase cane grown over a fixed area of land. However, neither had they been purchasing cane at the required pace, nor were they buying the required amount. If things moved at the present pace, it might take one year to complete the crushing of cane. Hence, the purchase of cane should be speeded up, he said.

Conflicting

Mr. Allapur, who is also one of the convenors of Indi-Sindagi Kabbu Belgegarara Sangha, said that Renuka Sugars Ltd., a sugar factory in Havalaga village of Afzalpur takuk in Gulburga district, had been asked by the Government to purchase 1.11 lakh tonnes of cane from Almel Hobli of Sindagi taluk in Bijapur district. However, the Gulburga district administration had established check-posts on its border to prevent the purchase of cane from Bijapur.

He warned if this situation continued for the next three days, the farmers would launch an agitation.

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