Govt 'succumbing' to sugar factory lobby, says a combative BJP

The winter session of the State legislature began on a fiery note on Tuesday with the principal opposition party, the BJP, staging a dharna in both the Houses over the problems being faced by farmers—especially sugar cane growers—and accusing the government of succumbing to the sugar factory lobby.

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Jagadish Shettar, led a dharna in the House, demanding that the BJP be allowed to move an adjournment motion on the issue against the government. He claimed that all that the administration had done was to protect the interests of sugar factories. Although the High Court of Karnataka has upheld the State Advisory Price fixed by the government, no action has been taken to make the factories pay the pending dues, he said.

Nearly 60 factories in the State have failed to pay Rs 1,837 crore to farmers for the supply of sugar cane in the financial year 2013-14. According to Shettar, although the government issued a notification on November 30, 2014, fixing the fair procurement price and asked the factories to pay Rs 2,000 per tonne as first instalment within a month, not a single factory has complied with the order.

The government must clarify why it took no action against the defaulter factories, he demanded.

He also accused the government of “doing precious little” to protect the interests of onion and maize farmers who are in distress due to the glut of production. The Agriculture Price Commission set up by the government hasn’t done anything in this regard either and is a “toothless tiger”, he said.

Earlier, when the BJP insisted on moving the adjournment motion setting aside the question hour, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused it of “politicising” the issue and “ misleading” the farmers. “Do not forget it was the BJP government that had ordered the police to fire on farmers in Haveri. Now, you (BJP leaders) are acting as if you care for farmers,” he sneered.

The chief minister also slammed as “undemocratic” the call given by BJP leader B S Yeddyurappa to farmers that they should bring sticks to the protest venue in front of the Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi.

The BJP’s S Suresh Kumar was quick to retort: “Was it okay if one threw a challenge by patting his shoulder in the Assembly?”

He was referring to what Siddaramaiah had done it when he was leader of the opposition.

For their part, members of the treasury bench tried to turn the tables on the opposition by raising the issue of the Central government’s refusal to extend minimum support price (MSP) to maize this year. Four ministers—D K Shivakumar, Krishna Byre Gowda, Dr Sharanprakash Patil and Dinesh Gundu Rao—accused the BJP of “double standards”. An unfazed Shettar then suggested that the government take a delegation to Delhi to urge the Centre to extend the MSP and that the BJP will support it.

The JD(S), however, didn’t join the issue. The government is scheduled to reply on the issue on Wednesday.

In the Council, it was Leader of the Opposition K S Eshwarappa who raised the cane pricing issue.

He claimed that the promise made by the chief minister at the last session of paying Rs 2,650 per tonne of cane procured from farmers had “remained on paper” and that sugar companies were paying just Rs 2,200-2,300.
DH News Service