BIRATNAGAR, DEC 23 - Eastern Sugar Mill (ESM) that had decided to start its operation from Sunday could not come into operation, since the local sugarcane farmers refused selling the sugarcane as part of their protest against the decision of reducing sugarcane price.
Earlier, Federation of Sugar Producers (FSP) decreased the price of sugarcanes to Rs 124 per quintal from Rs 140 per quintal, citing the continue decline in price of sugar in the international markets.
As part of their protest, the farmers had staged sit-in protest around the mill on Sunday barring mill operation.
The agitating farmers today also staged protest holding chakka jam (road block) to the vehicles belonging to the sugar mills. Federation of Sugarcane Producers, an apex body of sugarcane farmers, have warned that they will continue their protest until the sugarcane price is increased.
The farmers have stated that they are forced to wage stir against the mills, as the price fixed by the FSP does not even meet their investment cost.
"If I sell the sugarcane in such a low price, I can not raise my investment, let alone making profit," said Rishikes Dulal, a local sugarcane farmer. In addition, the farmers have been demanding to fix the price of sugarcane at Rs 168 per quintal over the last three years.
Meanwhile, according to our Mahotari-based correspondent, the Mahotari Sugarcane Producers’ Association today blocked the plying of the vehicles belonging to the Everest Sugar Mill as part of their protest against the decision of the mill to reduce the price of sugarcane.
According to Uttam Singh Khadka, the farmers had staged sit-in protest around the mill from 11 AM to 2 PM. The protesting farmers had also created hurdles on the movement of mill’s vehicles.
However, the sugar mills have a different story to narrate.
Dinesh Golchha, proprietor of ESM, said that the smuggled Indian sugar at a cheaper price made the mills unable to ensure their competitiveness in the local markets.
"This has ultimately forced us to reduce the price of sugarcane," he said. Golchha also said that they approached to the sugarcane farmers so as to resolve the problem. "But, their efforts went in vain, as the farmers have shown reluctance to pay attention to them," he added.Posted on: 2003-12-24 04:32

Post Your Comment

Please note that all the fields marked * are mandatory.

* Full Name

* Address

* Email Address

* Comment
[Some of the HTML tags you can use : <b>, <i>, <a>]

* Captcha

Get another CAPTCHA code