Sugarcane farmers stage protest in Shivamogga, urge government to fulfil their demands

Farmers staged a protest in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Shivamogga on Tuesday (November 3), urging the State government to fix a remunerative price for sugarcane.

The protesters, who gathered under the banner of the State Sugarcane Growers’ Coordination Committee, raised slogans calling on the government to address the growers’ demands at the earliest. They submitted a memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister.

The protesters said sugarcane growers in North Karnataka have been agitating intensely for more than a month. Talks between the government, factory owners and the coordination committee on the pricing issue have failed, they said, and crop is drying in the fields because of an unprecedented drought.

The farmers urged the factories to begin crushing immediately. They also asked the Union and State governments to stop blaming each other and fix the price at ₹5,500 per tonne at once. They also demanded that the government come to the aid of drought-hit farmers on a war footing.

Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha leaders Raghavendra, Jagadish, T.M. Chandrappa and others led the protest.