Raju Shetti (File)Farmer leader and former MP Raju Shetti Saturday demanded Rs 350 per tonne over the government-declared fair and remunerative price (FRP) as the first instalment payment for sugarcane sold to mills in the upcoming 2022-23 crushing season. Shetti made the demand while addressing the 21st Oosh Parishad in the town of Jaysingpur in the Shirol taluka of Kolhapur district.
The upcoming cane crushing season, which was supposed to start on October 15, has been delayed due to heavy and incessant rain which continues in many parts of the state. The Oosh Parishad is the annual show of strength of Shetti and his farmer union Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana where they make their announcement for the first instalment payment from mills.
The Sanghatana which has its pockets of influence in the cane belt of Western Maharashtra has been known to have disrupted the start of the crushing season if their demand is not met.
After back-to-back bumper seasons, Maharashtra’s millers are confident about another good season this (October- September) sugar year. Provincial estimates by the sugar commissioner’s office have talked of 14.87 lakh hectares of area under the crop with mills expected to crush 1,343 lakh tonnes of cane. The state is expected to produce 138 lakh tonnes of sugar during the season. As the country exported over 100 lakh tonnes of sugar, mills are in relatively good financial health at the start of the season.
Shetti took potshots at the Eknath Shinde government for its “anti farm” policies. Delay in the release of financial help in areas where crops have been damaged due to excessive rainfall and other issues were highlighted by the farmer leader during his speech.
The 21st Oosh Parishad comes at a time when Shetti is trying hard to reclaim lost ground in his home base and in the state in general. During the 2019 elections, when Shetti had sided with the NCP-Congress, the two-time MP was defeated by a relatively younger Dhairyasheel Mane of Shiv Sena.
Mane since then had joined the Shinde faction with Shetti trying to ensure his bid in the upcoming Lok Sabha election ends in victory. Swabhimani Paksha, the political wing of the farmer’s union, had supported the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government but its lone MLA, Devendra Bhuyar, was expelled from the party earlier this year. Bhuyar continues to support the NCP in his home district of Amravati.