After dilly-dallying and waiting for the State government to make a move, the Karnataka Sugarcane Growers’ Association has decided to lodge criminal complaints against all sugar mills defaulting on payment of dues in Belagavi district and other parts of the State.

“We could not file the cases as we had focussed our struggle on preventing farmers’ suicide first, and also wanted the district administrations to file complaints as per the law. Give us some more time and we will let you know,” said Mr. Kumar at a press conference here on Tuesday. Karnataka Rajya Raith Sangha vice-president Kalyanrao Muchalambi also spoke in support of filing cases against the defaulting sugar mills.

Mr. Kumar disclosed that criminal cases had been already filed against three mills in Kalaburgi district, and the Deputy Commissioner had issued notice for recovery of the dues.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had promised on the floor of the Legislature during the monsoon session in Belagavi to ensure payment of Rs. 930 crore due to growers, for sugarcane supplied during 2013-14, by July end. Of this, only Rs. 354 crore had been cleared. Another Rs. 2,400 crore was due for 2014-15.

He was highly critical of the Centre’s largesse to 172 industrial establishments which had availed loans from banks only to create non-performing assets to the tune of Rs. 2.4 lakh crore. The same government was not willing to waive off only Rs. 9,500 crore of loans on farmers’ heads, considering the acute crisis in sugarcane and other agricultural activities of Karnataka.

Bandh

Mr. Kumar appealed to all sections of people to support the Karnataka bandh call given by various farmers’ organisations on September 5. If their demand for waiver of all outstanding crop loans, payment of sugarcane dues and other related issues were not conceded by that time, a rally would be taken out in Bengaluru on September 7, he said.