Around 127 sugar mills in Maharashtra have commenced crushing operations. More than 30 lakh tonne has already been crushed. However, agitations over the first cane installment to be given to farmers continue in parts of the state since farmers are not happy with the payments promised by the millers. While the issue has been sorted out in the Kolhapur and Sangli regions, it remains to be solved in other regions including Solapur, Ahmednagar and Pandharpur, among others. According to the spokesperson of farmer outfit Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), since sugar recoveries are different in different regions, the same formula that was applied for Kolhapur and Sangli may not work in other regions. Then, there is the issue of weighing the cane brought by farmers to factories. There is no way to verify weights and, therefore, in some cases farmers are losing out. Random checks need to be done, the spokesperson said. Meetings are slated to be held in Solapur and Ahmednagar soon on this issue. On Wednesday, an agitation by farmers who were demanding an increase in the first cane installment took a violent turn in Shegaon region with police firing plastic bullets, lobbing teargas and resorting to lathi charges to rein in restive protestors.
The agitation was led by the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana and other farmer outfits. Parts of Ahmednagar, Aurangabad and Solapur districts, especially the Shegaon- Paithan stretch, witnessed fierce confrontations between farmers and the police with the later taking recourse to firing to disperse agitators. Shegaon was the hub of the violence with a number of villages in the taluka seeing burnt tyres, smashed glass panes of vehicles and road barricades. Two farmers and some police personnel have been injured due to the clashes.
The farmers, led by the SSS, have been demanding a first advance of Rs 3,100 a tonne from the owners of the Gangamai sugar factory in Shevgaon. Likewise, similar scenes of unrest were witnessed in Pategaon in Aurangabad’s Paithan Taluk. Then, road blocks were held in Pandhapur on Friday and farmers in Solapur have also been agitating for a higher cane price. Minister for cooperatives Subhash Deshmukh appealed to the farmers not to resort to violence and instead, come for discussions. “The Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP) for sugarcane is up by Rs 250 compared to last year. But citing the hike in sugar prices, farmers demand more. Everybody agreed to a Rs 100-hike in FRP during a meeting at Kolhapur. But now, the farmers are demanding Rs 3,100 per tonne instead of an FRP of Rs 2,700 per tonne,” Deshmukh had said. Sugar millers from south Maharashtra have agreed to pay Rs 200 per tonne over and above the FRP. The start of the season was in jeopardy with both millers and farmer organisations disagreeing over the first cane installment. While millers insisted on payment of FRP as the first installment of cane price, cane growers led by farmer organisations had demanded Rs 3,400 per tonne as the payment. Farmers across the state have been agitating over the issue.
Farmers and police battled in Kolhapur, Satara and Sangli districts in the last couple of days. A police jeep was set on fire, several State-run buses were damaged and policemen were stoned after they lathi-charged protesters last week in Sangli. When contacted, Maharashtra sugar commissioner Sambhaji Patil said this is a local issue and needs to be sorted out between factories and farmers in the region. By and large, there is the FRP formula and Rs 200 above it but farmers in some regions want more and therefore there are agitations. This has to be sorted out at the local level, he said. According to him, majority of the factories have paid FRP for the last season and some of the revenue-sharing money remains to be paid to farmers. Around 120 factories have paid and another 30 factories remain for which hearings have been planned soon, he said.