Belgaum:
Farmers' organisation Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha today rejected government's decision to offer Rs 150 per tonne more in addition to Rs 2,500 per tonne fixed as price for sugarcane crop, saying the increase was "meagre".
"We do not welcome the meagre incentive of Rs 150 per tonne," Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha President Kodihalli Chandrashekhar told reporters in Belgaum outside the Suvarna Soudha near where hundreds of farmers are protesting demanding better price for sugarcane.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced the incentive in the Assembly, hours after sugarcane farmer Vittal Bheemappa Arabhavi committed suicide by consuming pesticide at the protest site on Wednesday.
He said it is unfair to expect farmers to settle for Rs 2,500 per tonne when sugar factories are reaping huge profits.
Reiterating the demand to fix the price at at least Rs 3,500 per tonne, Mr Chandrashekhar said KRRS will continue its fight until government fixes a satisfactory price.