Cane prices: Farmers protest at Kaithal sugar mill, stop crushing operations
KARNAL: Demanding a hike in the state advisory prices (SAP), hundreds of sugarcane growers continued their protest on the second consecutive day at Kaithal cooperative sugar mill on Tuesday.
Protesting under the banner of Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), the farmers stopped the crushing operation at the sugar mill and sat on a dharna inside its premises.
The management of the mill and district officials tried to persuade the farmers to allow the crushing operation in the mill, but the former remained adamant and announced to intensify their agitation if their demands were not met. They also stopped the supply of sugarcane to the mill. Meanwhile, heavy police deployment was made at the sugar mill to deal with any untoward incident.
The sloganeering farmers accused the BJP-JJP coalition government of neglecting the farmers by not hiking the SAP.
Speaking on the occasion, BKS state secretary Randeep Arya said their agitation will continue and it will also spread to other mills as the government was not taking the plight of the farmers seriously. He also accused the mill management of threatening the farmers of police action by issuing notices to the farmers who were protesting peacefully.
Talking to HT, managing director of the mill Jagdeep Singh said, “Due to protest by a group of famers, other growers could not supply sugarcane to the mill and this affected the crushing operations, which were later resumed.”
He said the protesting farmers later shifted their protest outside the mill. Meanwhile, Bhartiya Kisan Union (Mann) members held a meeting in Yamunanagar and called a state-level ‘Mahapanchayat’ at Jind on January 25 to decide their further course of action. “We are demanding the SAP should be hiked to meet the increasing input costs as only Rs 30 were increased in the SAP in the past six years,” said Haryana BKU president Ratan Mann , adding that the crushing in all mills in the state will be stopped if the SAP was not hiked.