Mysuru: City police on Monday prevented the district unit members of sugarcane growers association when they attempted to enter the deputy commissioner office forcefully at Siddarthanagar during their protest here.

Heated arguments took place between police and protesters when the police prevented them from entering the DC office. The protesters staged a protest in front of main entrance gate of the deputy commissioner’s office demanding state govt to fulfil various demands.

They urged govt to waive off the crop loan borrowed by farmers in various cooperative banks owing to drought this year.

They appealed to govt to direct Bannari Amman Sugar Mills of Nanjangud taluk for immediate release of the pending Rs 150 tonne incentives for per tonne of sugarcane, which was delayed by the sugar mill from last year without any release.

They wanted to fix Rs 3,500 fair remunerative price for tonne of sugarcane for next crushing season, besides initiate measures to install government-certified weighing machine in sugar mills as companies were cheating farmers in weight measurement. The protesters also urged the govt to ensure uninterrupted 10 hours of power supply to irrigation pumpsets, Rs 25,000 per acre of drought-relief crop loss.