SANGAREDDY: Sugarcane farmers staged a massive demonstration in front of the RDO office in Zaheerabad on Wednesday, demanding immediate reopening of a sugar mill in the town that has been shut for the past two years.
They demanded for the sugarcane they had harvested this season to be purchased. They say the crushing of sugarcane by a local sugar mill in the Zaheerabad area had stopped, which had forced them to sell the produce to industries in the neighboring Nizamabad district, as well as in Karnataka. They claim that last year, only three to four lakh metric tonnes of sugarcane was produced, but this time it has gone up to about 10 to 12 lakh tonnes, and said it was tough to transport them to neighboring States.
In addition to this, they say no action had been taken to resume crushing at the local sugar mill in Zaheerabad even after the season began.On Wednesday, a huge rally was held from the suburbs of Zaheerabad to the Ambedkar statue in town, which was attended by a large number of farmers from villages around Zaheerabad, disrupting traffic on the highway.
Farmers demanded that the government should take steps to discuss with industry owners and start crushing immediately. They made it clear that they would intensify the protest if the government did not take steps. The protest has found support from various political parties and business organisations.