Mysuru: The city police intervened to prevent the district unit members of the sugarcane growers association from forcefully entering the deputy commissioner’s office in Siddarthanagar during their protest on Monday, reported The Times of India.
Tensions rose as heated arguments unfolded between the police and the protesters, who were barred from accessing the DC office. The demonstrators held a protest at the main entrance gate of the deputy commissioner’s office, pressing the state government to address various demands.
Their demands included urging the government to waive the crop loans taken by farmers in various cooperative banks due to this year’s drought. Additionally, they appealed for the government to instruct Bannari Amman Sugar Mills in Nanjangud taluk to promptly release the pending Rs 150 per tonne incentives for sugarcane, which had been delayed by the sugar mill since the previous year without any disbursement.
The protesters called for the fixing of a fair remunerative price of Rs 3,500 per tonne of sugarcane for the upcoming crushing season. They also advocated for measures to install government-certified weighing machines in sugar mills, citing concerns that companies were deceiving farmers in weight measurements.
Furthermore, the demonstrators urged the government to guarantee uninterrupted 10 hours of power supply to irrigation pump sets and provide Rs 25,000 per acre as drought relief compensation for crop losses.
