In Bangalore, the Karnataka cabinet met for three hours on Thursday to tackle the bitter protests that food‑banks and state farms are facing over sugarcane prices. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah led the discussion at Vidhana Soudha and said the state government would open talks with factory owners on Friday morning and meet with farmer leaders in the afternoon.
After the meeting, Siddaramaiah flew to a press conference to tell people he would send a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asking for an urgent discussion on farmers’ demands. He said the state wants the central government to explain why newer sugarcane “fair recovery price” (FRP) rates have forced farmers to earn less.
“The central government fixed FRP last year at 10.25 % recovery. Farmers are being asked to pay lower prices, while the BJP‑led ministry keeps changing the policy,” the chief minister said. He questioned the absence of Union Minister Pralhad Joshi at a farmers’ protest meeting and accused the opposition of politicising the crisis.
Siddaramaiah highlighted a recent resolution from the cabinet that the state will push the Prime Minister to rethink the FRP, lower the recovery rate, and lift sugar‑export bans. “We will keep supporting farmers through dialogue and democratic processes,” he added.
In 2023‑24 Karnataka’s sugar factories crushed 52.2 million metric tonnes of raw cane and paid ₹19.6 billion to farmers. The chief minister noted that the state had installed digital weigh‑scales in factories to boost transparency. Yet, he said, the opposition is spreading misinformation and confusing the public.
The government also raised the issue of ethanol. Karnataka can produce 270 million litres of ethanol from sugarcane, but the central government allotted only 47 million litres for 2024‑25, a figure the chief minister slammed as discriminatory.
Siddaramaiah said the cabinet is determined to intervene with the Prime Minister as soon as possible. He promised that Karnataka will remain firmly “pro‑farmers” and work to resolve the crisis.
Source: ianslive
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