Sugarcane war: Factories put the squeeze on support price

MYSORE/GULBARGA: Chief Minister Siddara­maiah said here on Saturday that the government will talk to sugar factory owners, who have protested against the "steep" minimum support price of Rs 2,500 per tonne to be paid to sugarcane farmers.

As news trickled in that factory owners were threatening to stop their operations altogether instead of paying the higher price for sugarcane, Siddaramaiah said only a couple of factories had expressed their inability to do so. "We will soon hold talks with them and try to resolve the issue," he said.

Asked about the alternative before the government in the event of sugar factory owners refusing to crush sugarcane, Siddaramaiah only said, "We will see."

The government has been on the receiving end on Saturday from both the sugar mills and farmers as neither seemed satisfied with the price of cane announced by it in the aftermath of a cane grower's recent suicide in Belgaum. While the Federation of Private Sugar Factories flatly refused to pay the new price of Rs 2500 per tonne of cane fixed by the government and warned it would move the courts if it got no relief in the matter, the Karnataka State Sugarcane Growers' Association, remained adamant on intensifying its agitation for a better price for cane .

Describing the price fixed by the government as unscientific, chairman of Renuka Sugars, Vidya Markumbi claimed the factories could not afford to pay it. Addressing a press conference in Belgaum, she accused the government of fixing the price of cane unilaterally and without consulting the sugar mills.

“If the government tries to impose an arbitrary and uneconomical cane price on the industry which is already burdened with last year's losses, the factories crushing cane will have to close down. This will also leave the cane produced by farmers in the fields,'' she said, warning that the mills would have no choice but to take legal action if the government did not reconsider.