Sugarcane farmers gherao Thanjavur collector

Thanjavur: Tension prevailed for a while at the monthly agriculturalists grievance day meeting chaired by collector N. Subbaiyan here on Friday when some farmers and farmers association representatives surrounded the collector, demanding a higher price for sugarcane and the immediate opening of the Arignar Anna sugar mill at Kurungkulam, near Thanjavur. The mill has been closed for the past few days due to an indefinite strike by its employees.

Mr Sundara Vimalanathan, secretary of the Thanjavur district Cauvery farmers protection association, said though the Central and state governments had fixed Rs2,650 as procurement price per tonne of sugarcane during the crushing season 2013-14, the director of sugar, Government of Tamil Nadu, in his circular of December 19, asked the sugar plants to give Rs2,200 as support price per tonne of sugarcane as announced by the Union government. Because of this, sugarcane farmers were going to lose Rs450 per tonne of sugarcane. He urged the Tamil Nadu government to convene a tripartite meting and announce its support price for sugarcane.

Some farmers shouted slogans and condemned the private sugar plant at Kottur for not disbursing Rs9 crore balance amount to sugarcane farmers. In his reply, the collector said the district administration has already taken up the issue of sugarcane farmers with the state government and received a positive reply. Despite this, the farmers keep up shouting slogans.This made the collector wind up the meeting abruptly and leave.