Deadlock over cane price continues, Maharashtra CM to take final call

PUNE: Even as the sugarcane crushing slowly gains momentum in Maharashtra, the deadlock over cane price continues. The farmer organisations have threatened to start agitation from November 26 if their demands of higher cane price are not accepted. Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis will now take a call on resolving the deadlock.

An informal meeting between farmer union representatives and sugar millers regarding payment of first installment to cane farmers ended without any conclusion. The meeting was organised by Girish Bapat, state minister for public distribution, Maharashtra in the presence of Subhash Deshmukh, Maharashtra minister of cooperation at Sahkar Sankul, Pune. The meeting was attended by chairmans of sugar mills.

Farmers are demanding higher payments due to rise in cultivation cost but millers have expressed their fiscal constraint to pay anything above the mandatory fair and remunerative price notified by the Union government.


Meanwhile, sugar mills from Kolhapur and Sangli have agreed to pay Rs 175/tonne more than the fair remunerative price (FRP) and started crushing operations fearing diversion of cane to neighbouring state Karnataka.