CRUSHING STALLED: Farmers waiting outside the Naranja Sahakari Sakkare Karakhane after it stopped crushing operations in Bidar on Friday.

BIDAR: Sugarcane farmers in Bidar received a blow on Friday when the Naranja Sahakari Sakkare Karakhane (NSSK) decided to stop harvesting and crushing of sugarcane. The factory still needs to crush over 1.2 lakh tonnes of sugarcane produced by nearly 2,000 of its share-holding members. There is 22 lakh tonne of sugarcane in the district and the three cooperative sugar factories in the district have crushed around 14 lakh tonne of sugarcane.

"This is in protest against the police and the district administration," factory chairman and former Minister Gurupadappa Nagamarapalli said.

"One of our share-holding farmers committed suicide on Thursday after procurement of his cane by the factory was delayed. In response, the district police have registered a case against two factory officers. The police have said the officials were responsible for the suicide. We deny these allegations," Mr. Nagamarapalli told presspersons. He suspected that the Deputy Commissioner had forced the police to book a case. "We are closing the factory till the police withdraw the case and the Deputy Commissioner and Superintendent of Police seek a public apology," Mr. Nagamarapalli said.

When asked if closing down the factory would not lead to more suicides by farmers, he said: "The State Government and the district administration will be responsible for that. They cannot hold the sugar factories responsible," he added. Asked if he was using the factory as a political instrument against the Government, Mr. Nagamarapalli said he was not playing politics with the lives of farmers. He said the factory had crushed cane of farmers who were not share-holding members of the factor just to protect their interests.

He said this was done on humanitarian grounds. He, however, denied allegations that the factory had bought cane from farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

Deputy Commissioner Munish Moudgil denied the allegations. "I am not connected with the case in any way. I did not know the police had registered a case against the factory officials and I have nothing against any factory or any individual in the district," he said. He said he had asked factories to crush the cane of small and marginal farmers who were their share-holders on a priority.

This was in response to the 5,800 applications he received from farmers, complaining that their cane was not bought by any factory in the district. Most of them were small and marginal farmers, he added. Mr. Moudgil said nearly 30 sugarcane growers in the district had committed suicide after their cane was not purchased.

He would convince the factory management to reopen the factory, he said.

In a meeting on April 18 and 21, the NSSK managing director had agreed to the Government's suggestion to continue crushing till May 31. Meanwhile, some organisations have accused the factory of playing politics with farmers. The NSSK has around 26,000 share-holding members in five taluks. Even after eight months of starting the crushing season, it has not purchased the cane grown by Mr. Nagamarapalli's political adversaries, says Baburao Biradar, member of the Zilla Abhivruddhi Sangha. He said NSSK had not bought cane grown by Chandrapaul Patel of Aurad who contested against Mr. Nagamarapalli in the Assembly elections.

Mr. Nagamarapalli denied such allegations. "Humnabad farmers have not approached us as they have tried to sell their produce to the Bidar Sahakari Sakkare Karakhane in Bhalki. We have not purchased Mr. Patel's cane as we were crushing on priority, the cane produced by small and marginal farmers," the former Minister said.

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