Farmers threaten to lock sugar mills in Meham, Rohtak
Rohtak, January 9
The sugarcane growers of Haryana have demanded that the price of sugarcane should be increased to Rs 450 per quintal, failing which they would be forced to launch a statewide agitation.
The cane-growers have given a week’s ultimatum to the state government in this regard, maintaining that both sugar mills of the district, at Meham and Rohtak, would be locked if their concerns were not addressed.
The farmers pointed out that the price of sugarcane in Haryana, which used to be the highest in the region, was now lower than the neighbouring states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh.
“The sugarcane growers of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh are getting a price of Rs 380 per quintal, while the farmers of Haryana are getting only Rs 362 per quintal, due to which the sugarcane growers in the state are in dire straits,” said Preet Singh, the president of the district unit of the All-India Kisan Sabha (AIKS).
Sabha secretary Balwan Kharak lamented that instead of giving a remunerative price to the farmers for their produce, the government was trying to enforce the recommendations of the Rangarajan Committee aimed at privatisation of the state-run and cooperative sugar mills.
