BELAGAVI: A large section of sugarcane growers in Belagavi district, known as the sugar-bowl of Karnataka, have been miserable as a few sugar factories have failed to clear their pending dues. Unable to eke out a living, Shivanand Bogur, a cane grower from MK Hubli, near Belagavi, has dug a grave and sat inside it in protest against the non-clearance of his pending dues.
A video of Bogur, dejected over not getting his dues after supplying sugarcane to the MK Hubli Sugar Factory, appealing to the government officials to come and bury him in the grave, went viral on social media platforms on Friday.
Bogur regrets supplying the cane to the Factory. “I spent a huge amount of money besides spending days and nights in the fields to cultivate a bumper crop,” he said.
He said that he had supplied 114 tonnes of cane to the factory for which he was supposed to be paid Rs 85,000 but the factory but did not pay him. Despite repeated reminders, Bogur said that nobody from the factory responded to his requests.
Left with no choice, he started a protest in this way to end his own life. Stating that the factory did not pay his dues even two years after he supplied cane, Bogur said that he did not even have the money to pay his children’s school fees or to make a living. Several cane growers and farmers appealed to the government solve the issue.