Give concessions to sugarcane cultivators hit by floods: Shiv Sena

The flood destroyed more than 2 lakh hectares (ha) of farmland across Sangli, Kolhapur and Satara districts, besides displacing nearly 5 lakh people and inundating major roads for nearly a week. The Sena said that farmers have lost their crops and they “will take time to come back on their feet.

The Shiv Sena on Monday demanded that a special package be provided to sugarcane cultivators who lost their yield in the recent floods in western Maharashtra, the sugar bowl of the state.

The Sena said that farmers have lost their crops and they “will take time to come back on their feet because the ‘aftershocks’ of the floods affect the farmers most”. (HT file photo)

The flood destroyed more than 2 lakh hectares (ha) of farmland across Sangli, Kolhapur and Satara districts, besides displacing nearly 5 lakh people and inundating major roads for nearly a week.

In an editorial in party mouthpiece Saamana, the Sena sought “concessions” for sugarcane cultivators and sugar factories, similar to those the Centre recently provided to various industries to boost the economy.

The Sena said that farmers have lost their crops and they “will take time to come back on their feet because the ‘aftershocks’ of the floods affect the farmers most”.

“The Union finance ministry fed a ‘booster dose’ of concessions to the industries and banking sector to treat the economic slowdown. It is also important to provide ‘saline’ in the form of concessions for the crisis that has hit the sugarcane cultivators and sugar industry ... The government will have to see to it that Maharashtra’s sugar doesn’t turn ‘bitter’,” the Sena said.

Western Maharashtra, accounts for 60% of Maharashtra’s, and 30% of India’s, sugar production.