Sugarcane growers from across the State congregated in Bangalore on Tuesday and took out a protest rally seeking a Fair and remunerative price for their produce. Around 800 protesters, under the aegis of the Karnataka State Sugarcane Growers’ Association, gathered in front of R.C. College on Palace Road and shouted slogans against Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa and Minister for Agricultural Marketing and Sugar Shivaraj Thangadagi. Addressing the farmers who had come from...

“States should ensure effective public distribution system”  Fiscal deficit at 6.8 per cent of GDP a challenge Dip in exports due to low demand following economic downturn in foreign markets Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday said increasing food grains productivity, ensuring effective distribution of subsidised essentials to vulnerable groups and allowing duty-free import were some of the steps taken to control the spiralling prices of essential commodities. Speaking at the 109th...

While the government may have got reprieve with the Fair and remunerative price, the mills are expected to move the courts On October 21, the Central government came out with an ordinance that it will henceforth announce a Fair and remunerative price for sugarcane, instead of the statutory minimum price. Millions of farmers across the country grow sugarcane which they sell to sugar mills. To make sure that prices don’t tank...

The Rajya Sabha on Wednesday passed by voice vote the contentious Essential Commodities (Amendment and Validation) Bill, 2009, (sugarcane pricing Bill) after the Central Government assured the House that State governments would not be required to pay the difference of the Fair and remunerative price (FRP) for sugarcane set by the Centre and the State Advised Price fixed by the States. On persistent requests by opposition members led by Venkiah...

The bizarre politics behind the UPA's withdrawal of the controversial sugarcane price order. It was the quickest retreat that any government has made in recent times. It took just a day’s protest outside Parliament before the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government decided to withdraw the controversial provisions of a notification it had issued last month on the payment of Fair and remunerative prices to sugarcane farmers. You may describe it as an...