Lakhimpur Kheri:
India's sugar belts continue to boil and situation turned ugly in Uttar Pradesh's Lakhimpur Kheri today where protests erupted over the death of a farmer.
Heavy stone pelting was reported from outside the Balrampur sugar mill where farmers kept the body of Satyapal Singh, who hung himself from a tree yesterday. Satyapal was burdened with a loan of Rs two lakh.
The security staff outside the mill fired in the air to disperse protesting farmers. They also used water cannons to disburse the crowd. The body was later removed.
In his suicide note, 45-year-old Satyapal claimed he was unwell and could not repay his agricultural debt of more two lakh rupees taken from various banks.
Satyapal was fired two years ago from a sugar mill where he worked as a labourer. He was fighting a case against the sugar mill.
His losses mounted when his crop failed due to excessive rains this year. His family claims that payments were also due to him from sugar mills for the case he had supplied last year.
Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh have stalled production after refusing to accept the government's purchase price of Rs. 290 per quintal.
Farmers in the western Uttar Pradesh district of Muzaffarnagar have been protesting against mill owners for not purchasing their produce at the price fixed by the government.
Meanwhile, the Allahabad High Court has asked the Akhilesh Yadav government to end the stalemate between farmers and mill owners within a week.
On Wednesday, another debt-ridden cane farmer consumed pesticide outside the Karnataka legislative assembly in Belgaum.
In Maharashtra too, hundreds of sugarcane farmers poured out on the streets of the sugar belt of Sangli, Satara, and Kolhapur, blocking roads, burning tyres after a two-day shut-down call by MP Raju Shetty of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sangthna.