Sugarcane farmers accuse factories of violating agreement

MYSURU: Upset with the management of the Bannari Amman and Mahadeshwara sugar factories for reneging on their promise to harvest their sugarcane crop, members of the State Sugarcane Growers’ Association on Wednesday assembled in front of the deputy commissioner’s office to protest the formers’ breach of trust.
The protesters said that the two factories had assured them of harvesting their crop, and subsequently transporting it for crushing, but had failed to honour the obligation. “The factories were supposed to cut the sugarcane crop on our fields within 12 months of the agreement being signed, but it has now been 15 months and our crop has not been harvested. We will incur massive losses if they do not harvest the crop immediately,” said the association secretary Athahalli Devaraj.
He accused the two factories of procuring sugarcane from other states, and giving local farmers the short shrift. Devaraj said that the farmers would be in a soup if their crops were not harvested at the earliest. “If the government fails to address our problem within a week, we will launch an indefinite stir in front of the DC’s office,” he added.