Belagavi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who landed at the Belgaum airport enroute to Kolhapur Saturday afternoon, met several local leaders in his brief stopover here.
Chikkodi Member of Parliament, Prakash Hukkeri, who received the Prime Minister, appealed to him for Central assistance to resolve the sugarcane growers’ crisis in the state.
In a letter that he submitted to Mr Modi on the occasion, he said it was necessary to increase the price of sugar to ensure that the factories paid the farmers a fair price for their crop. Urging him to hike the import duty on sugar to avoid flooding of the domestic market, he also called for incentives to promote export of sugar.
“No amount of revenue sharing or fixing of FRP will save the farmers from the wide fluctuations of the market till a strategic stock is created by the Centre to keep the prices within a band.
The strategic stock has to be created when there is surplus by procuring the sugar,” Mr Hukkeri added, also suggesting that the Centre promote the production of ethanol derived from sugarcane juice as it could be used for blending with petrol and creating a greener fuel.
“It will give impetus to the sugarcane prices and avoid sugar surplus,” he reasoned. Deputy Commissioner, N. Jairam also received the Prime Minister at the airport, who was accompanied by ministers Suresh Prabhu and Nitin Gadkari, Maharashtra Governor, C.V. Rao and Maharashtra Chief Minister, Devendra Fadanvis.
