Bengaluru: A day after farmers held a massive rally in Bengaluru seeking fulfilment of their various demands, which chiefly included payment of arrears from Sugar factories, and set a 15-day deadline for the State Government, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy held a meeting with sugarcane growers from Mumbai-Karnataka region at the Conference Hall of Vidhana Soudha this afternoon. The meeting was on when we went to the press.

All stakeholders, concerned Ministers, MPs, several Legislators are taking part in the meeting, which is expected to find some sort of a solution to the cane growers’ demands.

Prior to the meeting, a group of cane growers submitted a 10-point charter of demands to the Chief Minister, which included announcement of Fair and Remunerative Price (FRP), ex-field fixation of cane price instead of ex-gate price, clearance of all arrears due to the cane suppliers from Sugar Mills, fixation of Rs. 3,150 per tonne as being paid in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu and banning Sugar Mills from cane crushing until they clear all dues.

Sugar Minister K.J. George, Horticulture Minister M.C. Managuli, Agriculture Minister Shivashankar Reddy, Co-operation Minister Bandeppa Kashempur, MP Prakash Hukkeri, MLA P. Rajiv, State Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, State Sugarcane Growers Association President Kurubur Shanthakumar and others were among those who attended the meeting.