Maharashtra sugarcane growers' violent agitation intesifies

Maharashtra saw angry protests by farmers in Kolhapur, Satara and Sangli districts of Maharashtra over demands for better sugarcane prices yesterday. A police-jeep was torched, and several state-run buses suffered damage while policemen battled stone-pelting crowds.

Police in the town of Sangli had to resort to firing shots in the air to control the protesting crowds, which allegedly injured a farmer in the leg. A farmer died in police firing on Monday, according to reports.

Farmers in the state's sugarcane belt have been demanding a share of profits in sugar factories, claiming that the Rs2,300 for a ton of cane they were getting was too little. They are demanding Rs3,000 a ton, which is being resisted by factory owners, many of whom are influential politicians from the ruling Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

Maharashtra Congress chief Manikrao Thakre in an appeal to factory owners called on them to "drop their hidden agenda" and talk to the farmers so that the best price could be offered, according to a report by the Press Trust of India from Yavatmal in Maharashtra.

The protest turned violent on Monday following the detention of Independent MP Raju Shetty, who is leading the agitation. Shetty had to be sent to Pune's Yerawada central jail after he refused bail.

Meanwhile, sensing an opportunity activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal said in New Delhi that the Maharashtra government was neglecting farmers' interests because politicians were closely linked to the sugar lobby and industry. He tweeted today, "How many sugar mills in Maharashtra owned by NCP men, BJP men, Cong people? Which ministers own sugar mills? That data wud explain why govt not giving better sugarcane prices and favoring sugar mill owners (sic)."