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A meeting between the protesting Haryana farmers, who are demanding enhanced prices for sugarcane, and Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar Sunday evening failed to yield any result, a senior Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader said.
“The government expressed its inability to raise sugarcane prices. During the 90-minute meeting, we told the Chief Minister and Agriculture Minister J P Dalal to increase cane prices as there was inflation. But the chief minister said a committee has been set up already and on the basis of its report, a decision will be taken. We told the government that there is no need of committee,” BKU leader Rattan Mann said after the meeting.
In an official statement issued later, Khattar assured the delegation of farmers that his government would soon take a decision in the best public interest and urged them to go for agitation as “the closure of sugar mills is neither in the interest of the farmers nor of the mills”.
Crushing operations at sugar mills have come to a halt as protesting farmers on Saturday stopped the supply of sugarcane by locking the main entrances of the 14 mills in the state. They are demanding a hike in the sugarcane’s state advised price from Rs 362 to Rs 450 per quintal.
Mann said the agitation will continue and later this month, the issue will be raised at a panchayat of various farmers’ outfit in Jind. On June 29, when Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to visit Gohana in Sonipat, farmers will try to raise the issue there as well, he added.
Meanwhile, Khattar said decision will be taken by the committee keeping in view all the points raised by the farmers, including the price of sugarcane in neighbouring states. “Let the sugar mills run smoothly as the closing of mills is not going to benefit anyone,” the chief minister said.
Khattar asked the farmers not to get misled by anyone in any way. “Farmer brothers should take a wise decision and let the mills run smoothly. The state government has always stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the farmers. In the last eight years, we have continuously started new schemes in the interest of farmers. The committee constituted by the state government will look into the demands of the sugarcane farmers and take appropriate decision, which will be beneficial for all in the long run,” he said.
WITH PTI
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