The Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) on Sunday staged road blockades across western Maharashtra and Marathwada demanding higher prices for sugarcane crop.
Targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government for its “hollow promises” towards sugarcane farmers, Mr. Shetti said that the latter would never receive their dues so long as the State Sugarcane Price Control Board was controlled by big sugar mill operators who had the tacit backing of the ruling administration.
The chakka jam staged by the SSS resulted in traffic snarls in several parts of Solapur district and a few taluks in Marathwada, where agitators were seen raising slogans against BJP.
Resolution in Sangli
However, with the impasse between sugar mill operators and farmers’ representatives resolved for the crucial Kolhapur and Sangli districts on Saturday, the impact of the agitation was relatively muted.
“The sugarcane price control committee is infiltrated by factory owners. So, how can farmers expect their arrears and fair prices in such a situation?” said the MP from Hatkanangale, speaking in Osmanabad in Marathwada.
Mr. Shetti further said that a number of sugar mill operators, including the factory in Solapur owned by State minister and senior BJP leader Subhash Deshmukh, had submitted false information to the Sugar Commissioner claiming to have paid their pending dues to farmers. He further accused senior BJP leader Chandrakant Patil of attempting to crush the agitation by misusing his power. “We will not permit sugarcane crushing in such factories to go on,” he warned.
Minister of State for Agriculture, Sadabhau Khot said that the chakka jam was being staged by Mr. Shetti and the SSS squarely with an eye on the upcoming parliamentary election. “There is no political agenda to my agitation. Some people are bent upon tarnishing my reputation,” he said.
The SSS is demanding an additional ₹200 per tonne to the current fair and remunerative price (FRP) of ₹2,750 already set by sugar mill operators. “In addition, we have further demanded that the FRP amount be paid in a single installment and that the pending dues of the last cane crushing season be immediately given to the farmers. As the mill owners in Kolhapur and Sangli have acquiesced to our demands, we called off the agitation in these two districts today,” said Bhagwan Kate, Mr. Shetti’s aide in Kolhapur.
On Saturday, an hour-long meeting between sugar mill operators and farmers’ representatives resulted in the former party acceding to the demands of the SSS, thus defusing a potentially incendiary situation in the vital Kolhapur-Sangli sugar belt which constitutes the stronghold of Mr. Shetti’s organization.
Tensions between the SSS and sugar mill operators which have been simmering since the start of the cane crushing season on October 20 came to a head last week after a group of farmers and SSS workers allegedly torched offices of the Rajarambapu and the Vasantdada Patil Cooperative Sugar factories in Sangli.
Earlier, SSS activists had been thwarting the transportation and harvesting of sugarcane from fields in Sangli and Kolhapur in order to force the mill owners to accede to their demands.