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Ongoing agitations over a hike in the current fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane have taken an ugly turn with the torching of the official car of the State Sugar Commissioner Vijay Singhal at his Pune residence in the early hours of Friday.
The Shetkari Sanghatana (SS) has taken responsibility for the incident and said the agitation will continue in the same manner unless the State Government takes cognisance of their demands. These include not granting crushing licenses to sugar factories till last year’s dues are cleared.
According to Singhal, 28 of 170 factories that were involved in crushing last season had not yet cleared farmers’ dues, and all of these were running in loss. “We have withheld crushing licences to these 28 factories. Beyond this and I am not authorised to take action against them,” he said, adding that over 100 factories had been issued with licences so far, and around 85 had begun crushing.
Accepting that yesterday’s car burning incident was indeed perpetrated by the SS, leader Raghunath Patil, warned that the offensive was set to become stronger and more violent. “The Government should either lift the ban on sugar exports and remove the levy, or give farmers higher prices if they want to impose restrictions,” he said.
The two major sugar farmers’ organisations in Maharashtra — the Shetakari Sanghatna and the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghtana (SSS) — are demanding a total of Rs 4,500 per tonne of sugarcane, including Rs 3,000 per tonne as cost of production in the first instalment, and are holding agitations across the State. Currently, the FRP per tonne fixed in Maharashtra is Rs 1,750 for 9.5 per cent recovery and Rs 179 for every additional 1 per cent recovery, working out to an average of Rs 2,150 per tonne.
In October, cane farmers had locked up around 200 Government officials for nine hours in the building that houses the sugar commissioner’s office in Pune.
For the last five days, the SSS, led by the MP from Kolhapur Raju Shetty has been agitating outside the Karmayogi Shankerrao Patil Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana at Indapur and preventing it from operating.
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