Members of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) and Hasiru Sene on Thursday staged a dharna outside the Deputy Commissioner’s office here opposing the move by the State-owned Mysore Sugar Company Ltd. (MySugar) to fix the price at Rs. 2,200 per tonne of sugarcane.
Describing the price as “unscientific”, the farmers opposed the announcement by Minister for Cooperation H.S. Mahadeva Prasad, who is also president of MySugar.
The protesters said that the Pandavapura sugar factory had announced Rs. 2,500 per tonne of sugarcane.
MLA’s warning
Mandya Staff Correspondent writes:
K.S. Puttannaiah, Melkote MLA, on Thursday threatened to intensify protests if the State government failed to fix an advance price of Rs. 2,500 a tonne of sugarcane for the current crushing season.
Mr. Puttannaiah, who is also a senior leader of the KRRS, joined a protest that started near M. Visvesvaraya Statue on the Bangalore–Mysore highway here.
He said the deadline to increase the price was August 17.
The KRRS and Hasiru Sene would continue the protest till August 16 and would organise a ‘jail bharo’ on August 18, he said.
