Farmers in Maharashtra's Solapur district have launched an agitation seeking a higher price for their sugarcane produce and deflated tyres of a vehicle transporting the harvest to sugar factory as a mark of protest. They have demanded that the state government pay heed to their demand and resolve the issue.
A police official on Thursday said 11 tyres of a tractortrolley were deflated by unidentified persons near Wakhari in Solapur on Wednesday night, but the tractor owner has not lodged a complaint.
Various farmer outfits, under the aegis of Solapur District Sugarcane Rate Struggle Committee, have been demanding Rs 3,100 per tonne of sugarcane as against the current rate of Rs 2,100 to Rs 2,300, a member of one of the protesting organisations said on Thursday.
The pro-farmer bodies had also appealed to transporters not to ferry the sugarcane harvest from farms to sugar mills. "Recently, wehadaconclave of around 20,000 sugarcane cultivators in Solapur district. In the meeting, we demanded that the farmers get a rate of Rs 3,100 per tonne.
We sought that a farmer should get Rs2,500 as the first instalment and the remaining Rs 600 at the time of the final bill," SachinPatil, a member of the pro-farmer Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, said.
