 "To end crisis, sugar farmers, millers to meet PM on Tuesday")
However, the two groups agreed to jointly approach Prime Minister (PM) Manmohan Singh to seek Centre’s intervention to end the crisis in the sugar sector. The meeting is likely to take place on November 26.
While the state government said it was seriously looking into the issues faced by the sugar industry, farmers stuck to their demand for fixing the cane price at Rs 3,000-3,500 a tonne.
However, the industry representatives remained non-committal on higher cane payment, especially when the market price of sugar had dipped to Rs 2,635 -2,655 a quintal. The industry asked the Central and state governments to tackle the sugar price.
After the meeting, Shetkari Sanghatana leader and member of Parliament Raju Shetty said his organisation would step up the agitation for higher cane price.
The chief minister said the state government was “seriously examining” a slew of measures sought by the sugar industry. He added that the issues such as an increase in import duty of sugar and creation of buffer stock would be raised at the meeting with the PM.
A senior minister told Business Standard: ‘’The sugar industry wants transport subsidy of Rs 300 a quintal from the state government and Rs 500 a quintal from the Centre. Also, it has pressed for an export subsidy of Rs 5,000 a tonne, which would help it export three-four million tonnes of sugar during the current season.’’ This apart, the industry wanted the government to increase the import duty to 60% and create a buffer stock of five million tonnes.
According to the state government data, about 87 factories, including cooperative and private, have so far crushed 4.7 million tonnes of cane to produce 3.8 million tonnes of sugar.