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JJP MLA Ramkaran reaches out to protesting cane farmers in Haryana
Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala has also raised this issue with the chief minister, and the CM himself is in favour of SAP hike, but there are some advisors who are giving wrong advice,” said the MLA, who is also chairman of Haryana Sugarfed, while addressing a gathering of farmers at Shahbad cooperative sugarmill.
Shahbad legislator Ramkaran Singh, who owes allegiance to Jannayak Janta Party, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s alliance partner in Haryana, reached out to protesting sugarcane growers and assured them that he has taken up their demand for cane state advised price (SAP) hike with the chief minister (CM).
“Deputy CM Dushyant Chautala has also raised this issue with the chief minister, and the CM himself is in favour of SAP hike, but there are some advisors who are giving wrong advice,” said the MLA, who is also chairman of Haryana Sugarfed, while addressing a gathering of farmers at Shahbad cooperative sugarmill.
He told farmers that he had always stood by them and is ready to even go to jail with them.
“I recommended ₹40 per quintal hike as the input cost has also increased due to diseases and pest attack,” he said.
“Officials said the sugarmills are running under losses; it was not my fault, they should have taken steps to improve financial health of the mills,” he said.
The MLA was sitting among farmers when BKU (Charuni) president Gurnam Singh Charuni took a jibe at him, saying that CM Khattar will also sit among them one day if the farmers stay united.
Later addressing the gathering, Charuni said they will continue to protest until the government accepts their demand to hike sugarcane SAP to ₹450 per quintal from ₹362 a quintal. Charuni informed the farmers that they have called a mahapanchayat at Kurukshetra on Monday to decide the next course of action. He added that farmers are ready to also block highways.
Members of sarpanches association from Kurukshetra district also extended their support to the protesting farmers. Addressing the farmers, Charuni said nobody will listen to farmers until they form their own government and elect their own people in the coming elections.
Support pours in from several quarters
In Yamunanagar, the local AAP leadership also joined the protesting farmers at Saraswati Sugar Mills.
Ratan Singh Devghar, senior leader from Bhartiya Kisan Sangh, a farmer rights outfit of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), also addressed the gathering.
Farmer leader Satpal Kaushik claimed that sugarcane crop worth ₹2,000 crore is yet to be harvested but the government is not ready to hear to them.
“If a farmer grows it on a piece of rented land, it costs ₹400 per quintal. How can he survive by selling sugarcane for only ₹362 per quintal? In the last three years, the input cost rose by ₹50, but the increase in price was negligible,” he added.
In Ambala, Congress MLA Varun Chaudhary addressed the agitating farmers at Naraingarh sugar mills and said the government should accept their genuine demand.
