The Hindu : Front Page : Protesting sugarcane growers descend on Bangalore

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Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010
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Protesting sugarcane growers descend on Bangalore

Staff Reporter

They are demanding a remunerative price

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

Angry: Sugarcane growers arguing with Minister Shivaraj S. Thangadagi (right) during a protest rally in Bangalore on Tuesday.

Bangalore: Sugarcane growers from across the State congregated in Bangalore on Tuesday and took out a protest rally seeking a fair and remunerative price for their produce.

Around 800 protesters, under the aegis of the Karnataka State Sugarcane Growers’ Association, gathered in front of R.C. College on Palace Road and shouted slogans against Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and Minister for Agricultural Marketing and Sugar Shivaraj Thangadagi.

Addressing the farmers who had come from Davangere, Chitradurga, Hassan, Mandya and other districts, president of the association Kurubur Shanthakumar urged the State Government to announce a fair and remunerative price for sugarcane immediately.

Mr. Shanthakumar alleged that sugar mill owners in the State were earning a net profit of Rs. 3,000 for a tonne of sugarcane. “But they are paying only Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 1,800 for a tonne of sugarcane to growers. Factories produce 105 kg of sugar by crushing a tonne of cane, which would alone fetch Rs. 4,300 in the market. The factory owners are also earning a lot of money by way of selling molasses and bagasse,” he added.

Though the farmers initially planned to lay siege to the Vidhana Soudha, they were halted at K.R. Circle and CoD junction as the police had clamped prohibitory orders in a radius of 1 km around the Vidhana Soudha as a precautionary measure.

Incensed over not being allowed to proceed to the Vidhana Soudha, the sugarcane growers shouted slogans against Bangalore city Police Commissioner Shankar Bidari. The police personnel made arrangements for providing food and water to the protesting farmers.

Though the police personnel were deployed in large numbers, traffic was disrupted for some time on Palace Road and at CoD junction.

Mr. Thangadagi, who went to the protest venue near R.C. College, was heckled by the agitating farmers who insisted that the Chief Minister should come to the spot and receive their memorandum.

But the police pacified the farmers after which Mr. Thangadagi addressed the gathering. He assured them that he would place their demands before the Chief Minister and invite them for a meeting shortly. Dissatisfied with the Minister’s assurance, the farmers refused to disperse until the Government met their demands.

“We had announced our protest a fortnight ago. Could you not have considered our demands in advance? You have forced us to come all the way to Bangalore from different parts of the State,” Mr. Shanthakumar told the Minister.

Mr. Shanthakumar later told The Hindu that government officials had conveyed to them that the Chief Minister would meet them at 12.30 p.m. on Wednesday. “We have decided to stay put in Bangalore. Only after we meet the Chief Minister on Wednesday will we leave Bangalore,” he said.

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