The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Merajuddin, Deve Gowda to start State tour from January 1

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Thursday, Dec 20, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Merajuddin, Deve Gowda to start State tour from January 1

Special Correspondent

Former Chief Minister Kumaraswamy to join the campaign later

‘Sugar units should be told to settle dues of growers’
Support price for onion, tomato sought

Merajuddin Patel (left) and H.D. Deve Gowda

Bangalore: President of the State unit of the Janata Dal (Secular) N. Merajuddin Patel and party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda will begin a tour of the State from January 1.

Mr. Patel told presspersons here on Wednesday that the original plan was that H.D. Kumaraswamy and he participating in the first leg of the State tour.

The plan had to be altered as Mr. Kumaraswamy would be undergoing a heart surgery on Thursday.

The former Chief Minister would join the campaign at a later date. The tour would commence from Bidar.

Mr. Patel urged Governor Rameshwar Thakur to direct sugar factories in the State to immediately settle their dues to the sugarcane growers. Many of the nearly 50 sugar factories had not paid their dues (over Rs. 140 crore) to the growers. This had caused problems to the growers, many of whom were finding it tough to repay crop loans.

The factories had not paid to farmers because of various reasons, including the sugar glut in the State. A number of them had continued crushing owing to the pressure exerted on them by the government and the farmers.

The factories had represented to the government to bail them out by assisting in selling their large sugar stocks.

Mr. Patel in his letter to the Governor said the government had also discriminated in the implementation of the support price for sugarcane announced by the Kumaraswamy government six months ago.

The then government had announced support price of Rs. 2,000 per acre of standing crop of sugarcane, and it was announced as the farmers had to wait for long periods to harvest their crop in the light of the sugar glut.

While the support price was paid to the non-members of the sugar factories, the members were deprived of it as the government wanted the sugar factories to bear the cost.

Members of the sugar factories were the farmers who grew sugarcane within a specified jurisdiction of each factory and they obviously enjoyed preference in marketing their crop to the factory concerned.

He said: “the then Chief Minister realising the pathetic state of sugarcane growers sanctioned Rs. 45 crore as compensation. Of this, only Rs. 6 crore has been released so far. The government should pay the compensation to both the members and non-members of the sugar factories. Further, the growers should also be paid Rs. 2 per km towards transportation of the cane to the factories.”

Mr. Patel also urged the Governor to announce the support price for onion and tomato.

The prices of tomato and onion had dropped steeply in the last few weeks.

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