BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the government is ready to take an all-party delegation to the Centre to address the concerns of sugar mill owners and farmers in the state.
The delegation will raise issues such as increasing MSP for sugar, ethanol allocation to oil companies and increase in sugar export quota.
On Friday, the CM held a series of meetings with representatives of sugar mill owners and sugarcane farmers who had resorted to large-scale protests in parts of north Karnataka demanding hike in FRP.
The CM said that it is the Centre that fixes FRP for sugarcane and MSP for sugar. The state has little role in this. The CM said he had already written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in this regard.
“We are ready to take an all-party delegation to the Centre to exert pressure. A separate meeting will be held to discuss the problems faced by sugar mill owners and sugarcane growers”, the CM told reporters. If the PM gives the time, we are ready to take a delegation to the Centre tomorrow itself, the CM told the meeting.
The CM convinced the farmers and sugar mill owners that the state government will resolve the problems which come under its ambit. The farmers said the FRP is not scientific and wanted the state to put pressure on the Centre.
They also demanded laboratories to be set up at factories to check discrepancies in sugarcane recovery rate and insisted that the factories should be told to release the dues against sugarcane purchase. The CM assured them that problems such as alleged cheating in weighing and showing of low recovery will be resolved.
The sugar mill owners in the state told the CM that the Centre’s policies favour sugar mills in north Indian states. Former minister and BJP leader Murugesh Nirani, representing sugar mill owners, said the state government has not renewed power purchase agreement with the sugar mills.
Maharashtra buys electricity at Rs 6 per unit and Karnataka should enter into a similar agreement. The 60 paise tax per unit on electricity procured from factories should be abandoned, he said.
“The distance between sugar factories should be fixed at least 25 km apart and the Prime Minister should be requested to give permission to mix ethanol for aviation fuel as soon as possible”, he suggested. He said the mill owners are ready to distribute additional income to farmers after the season ends.