Urging the State government to fix a support price of Rs. 3,000 a tonne of sugarcane for the present crushing season, Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha (KRRS) and Hasiru Sene members staged demonstrations and put up roadblocks at different places in the district on Wednesday.
Vehicular movement on the busy Bengaluru–Mysuru highway and Srirangapatna-Bidar highway was disrupted. The police took over 200 protesters into preventive custody at several places between Maddur and Srirangapatna as vehicles on either side of the highway came to a grinding halt.
While farmers wanted at least Rs. 3,000 a tonne, the State government recently fixed the fair and remunerative price (FRP) at Rs. 2,200 a tonne for 2014–15.
Opposing the move, the members staged the protests.
Residents of Somanahalli, Shivapura, Gejjalagere, Hanakere, Hale Budabur, V.C. Farm Gate, Induvalu, Srirangapatna and Naguvanahalli blocked vehicular movements on the highway near the entrances of their villages.
According to the KRRS, farmers also staged similar protests at major junctions in Srirangapatna, Maddur, Pandavapura, K.R. Pet, Nagamangala and Malavalli taluk centres.
‘Revive Mysugar’Another demand of the farmers was to initiate immediate steps to revive the State-run Mysugar mill.
“We took several farmers into preventive custody and later released them,” Bhushan Gulabrao Borase, Superintendent of Police, told The Hindu .
Meanwhile, Abhilash (28) of Gejjalagere allegedly threatened to commit suicide at Gejjalagere when the police tried to take him into custody.
The KRRS sources said the farmers also blocked traffic on Srirangapatna-Bidar highway at T.B. Circle in Nagamangala.
