BENGALURU: Sugarcane farmers, already in distress and debt and awaiting payment of the second installment of the incentive of Rs 100 a ton announced by state government for 2013-14, would get the amount only after an auction of sugar stocks seized from defaulting sugar factories, sugar minister H.S. Mahadev Prasad said on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Karnataka Sugarcane Growers’ Association president Kurubur Shanthkumar told Deccan Chronicle that representatives of all farmers’ associations would meet in Bengaluru on August 1 to chalk out their future course of action as the government failed to keep its word that the amount would be credited to the account of farmers before July 31.
“How will the government sell sugar when there is no demand in the market? The minister did not keep his promise of clearing the dues from the state exchequer and then recover the amount paid to farmers through auctioning. We will work out our future course of action on August 1,” Mr Shanthkumar said.
Mr Mahadeva Prasad, who chaired the fourth meeting of Sugar Control Board, said tenders were floated to dispose off the stock of sugar equivalent to Rs 926 crores due to farmers and the process was likely to be completed in next 10-15 days. Once the government receives the money from auctions, it would be distributed to farmers. He admitted that the crash in price of sugar was posing problems for disposal of the stocks.
The minister said the state government has sought an appointment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the first week of August to seek his intervention and to help resolve the crisis. Help from the Union government was essential as the state was not in a position to pay Fair & Remunerative Prices (FRP) fixed by New Delhi. “We will request the Union government to set up price stabilisation fund to be utilised whenever prices of sugar hit rock bottom,” he added.
Mr Pawan Kumar, president of Karnataka Unit of South India Sugar Managements Association, said a meeting of high power committee of Union ministry of agriculture would be held on August 1 in which officials from all sugarcane growing states would participate.
Post this meeting, the state government would meet the Prime Minister early next month. The Union government had fixed FRP for the current year on the basis of last year’s price of sugar. In reality, however, the price of sugar dropped due to lack of demand in the domestic market. Each factory would incur a loss of Rs 500 a quintal of sugarcane crushed and around 50 lakh tonnes of sugarcane had to be crushed shortly.
BJP to hold ‘Vishwas Yatra’
Leaders of the state unit of BJP are likely to organise ‘Vishwas Yatra’ to instill confidence among farmers and thus prevent them from committing suicide, general secretary C.T. Ravi said on Wednesday.
Mr Ravi, who was part of teams of the party which visited families of farmers who committed suicides, the leaders would also request agricultural scientists and eminent experts to join them in this exercise. The party would submit to the state government reports of six teams which visited 21 districts where farmers ended their lives. Mr Ravi and Mr Ashwathnarayana said the kin of only 63 farmers’ had received ex-gratia amount sanctioned by the government.
Though the government stated that 199 farmers committed suicide, BJP leaders found that the figure was much higher at 221. The leaders claimed that these 221 farmers ended their lives during the last seven months, 100 of them in the last 40 days. Fifty eight farmers committed suicide in the last five days.
The BJP leaders said most of the victims were small land holders who were in deep distress because of mounting debts, loss of sugarcane and sericulture crops, and supply of spurious seeds and pesticides.
