The Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana chief Raju Shetti, MP, alleged on Monday that the State government was tapping phones of top leaders of his party and said the agitation against sugar factory owners would continue till sugarcane farmers were paid full Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP).

 

“The State government is intent on breaking the protest as it is dreading the pent-up ire of sugarcane farmers. Hence, since Sunday, government agencies are tapping the phones of all top members of my organisation, including myself,” alleged Mr. Shetti, stating that the police always managed to reach pre-planned ‘agitation spots’ before his activists did. Condemning the police ‘crackdown’, he further alleged that SSS workers were being taken into preventive custody while some were being compelled to go underground.

 

Mr. Shetti’s agitation to secure full FRP for farmers in the ‘sugar belt’ districts of Kolhapur, Sangli and Satara is directed at mills and cooperatives mainly owned by NCP or Congress members.

 

However, Mr. Shetti, who is backed by Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the Hatkanangale Lok Sabha seat (in Kolhapur), told The Hindu that “political considerations” were secondary to pressing issues facing farmers.

 

Since Friday last week, harvesting and transportation of sugarcane in the sugar districts in western Maharashtra have come to a grinding halt after farmers led by SSS activists torched a couple of sugar mills and locked the field offices of some others, demanding payment of arrears.

 

The protests were triggered after factory owners said they could only pay an FRP of ₹2,300 per tonne of cane crushed as against the full FRP of ₹2,850 per tonne.

 

Earlier on Monday, Mr. Shetti met the Sugar Commissioner in Pune and submitted a proposal demanding that full FRP be paid to farmers immediately. He said the Commissioner had assured him of a resolution to the impasse by the end of this week.

 

As on December 31, 2018, the backlog in payments to sugarcane farmers was a staggering ₹4,500 crore.