'Payfarmer' first: Raitha Sangha highlights ryots' woes

BENGALURU:  In a spinoff from the Congress ‘PayCM’ poster drive on corruption in Karnataka, the farmers’ organisation Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha launched a ‘Payfarmer’ campaign on Monday, demanding suitable prices for sugarcane.

‘Payfarmer accepted here, Rs 4,500 per tonne for sugarcane’ reads the poster created by the Darshan faction of KRRS. Darshan Puttannaiah is former MLA and KRRS leader K S Puttannaiah’s son.“The Congress, BJP and other parties are involved in mudslinging with the poster war, but our campaign is in the interest of farmers. We demand Fair Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane, which is between Rs 2,500 and Rs 2,800 per tonne in Karnataka, and Rs 3,500 in Uttar Pradesh,’’ Darshan told TNIE.

Raitha Sangha members, while launching the ‘PayFarmer’ campaign at Mandya, pasted posters on KSRTC buses so that awareness spreads across the state. If the government does not respond to their demand, they warned of ‘rasta roko’ during the Mysuru Dasara festivities.

Legendary leader Prof M D Nanjundaswamy’s son Pacche, welcoming the ‘Payfarmer’ poster campaign by farmers, said sugar factories get a profit of over Rs 10,000 per tonne through various byproducts like molasses, hence FRP of Rs 4,500 per tonne is justifiable.

Raitha Sangha leader Kuruburu Shanthakumar informed TNIE that state owned factories owed Rs 200 crore to sugarcane farmers in Karnataka. “The FRP is Rs 3,050 per tonne, and should be hiked to at least Rs 3,500,” he said.

“Priority is to #payfarmer and not #paycm #paymadam (sic),” tweeted Madhuchandan SC, CEO and founder of Organic Mandya, in response to the Congress-BJP tussle over corruption. Interestingly, Madhuchandan is an MLA aspirant from Mandya and likely to take the electoral plunge in the 2023 assembly polls on a Raitha Sangha ticket.