Mysore/Mysuru: With farmers demanding a higher price for sugarcane, Deputy Commissioner (DC) Rohini Sindhuri has assured them that she will send a report to the Government seeking revision of cane price.

The DC held a meeting with sugarcane growers and farmers to discuss their issues at her office here on Tuesday.

During the course of the meeting, Rohini Sindhuri directed the officials to stop sugarcane arrivals from other districts and to ask sugar factories to start crushing of sugarcane that are 14-16 months old. She also asked the officials to ensure that sugar factories collect only the charges fixed by the Government for cane cutting and transportation.

The DC further assured the farmers that the registration of paddy procurement centres will commence soon and that she will write to the Government to issue directions on buying at least 100 quintals of paddy from every farmer and  also to announce an additional Rs. 200 per quintal as support price.

Speaking after the meeting, State Sugarcane Growers Association President Kurubur Shantakumar said that the DC was told that the sugar factories were not coming forward for sugarcane cutting even after 15-16 months of cultivation, when it is generally ideal to cut cane after 12 months and that the factories were paying the growers less than the price stipulated by the Government. 

The DC assured of addressing the issues raised by the sugarcane growers by writing to the Government, he said and urged the Government to raise the cane price in the wake of rising production costs.

Farmer leader P. Somashekar said that the farmers were not getting lorries for transporting sugarcane to factories. He wanted the Government to hike cane price taking into consideration the increasing production costs.

Sugarcane Gowers Association office-bearers Attalli Devaraj, Hallikerehundi Bhagyaraj, Kurubur Siddesh, C.K. Ravindra, Ankappa Kendagannaswamy, Baradanapura Nagaraj, Mahadevaswamy, Manjunath, Prasad Nayaka, Gourishankar, K.G. Guruswamy, Pradeep, Prabhakar, B.P. Parashivamurthy and others attended the meeting.