Siddaramaiah buys time, cane stir off

Belgaum/Mysore: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday succeeded in breaking the logjam over minimum support price for sugarcane by persuading farmers to suspend their agitation for a week until December 9.

After an hour-long meeting with Siddaramaiah at Suvarna Soudha in Belgaum late on Monday night, president of Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha Kodihalli Chandrashekhar told Deccan Chronicle that the stir would be suspended with immediate effect following an assurance from the Chief Minister that the state government would strive to secure more incentives for sugarcane farmers at a meeting convened by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on Saturday.

"The Chief Minister has said that he would be back from Delhi on December 8, and meet sugarcane farmers on December 9 to resolve the crisis. We will wait for his decision till December 9," he added.

Hours before his meeting with sugarcane farmers, Siddaramaiah talked tough when asked about resistance by owners of sugar factories to pay the minimum support price fixed by the state government.

"Nobody is above the law. We are coming up with a special order on the price for sugarcane, and it will be binding both on sugarcane farmers and factory owners. There will be room for legal action against those who violate the new order," he told media at Talakkad near Mysore.