Shetti urges tillers to show black flags to guv & Shah

Kolhapur: Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raju Shetti on Tuesday appealed to sugar cane farmers to show black flags to governor CP Radhakrishnan and Union cooperation minister Amit Shah during their visit to Kolhapur city on Wednesday, to protest state govt's failure to ensure additional Rs 100 per tonne payout to the tillers in the last cane crushing season.
Shetti said, "For the demand of an additional price for sugar cane, we had shut the national highway for 10 hours. It was only after chief minister Eknath Shinde intervened and assured that he would ask the mills to pay the additional sum to the cane farmers that we withdrew the protest. Since then, we have met him a couple of times and held demonstrations, but in vain."
The farmers' leader said the black flags would be farmers way of showing their anger to govt. "Around 80% of the farmers from Kolhapur and Sangli cultivate sugar cane. The mills are not ready to share the profit with the farmers. If govt does not force the mills to adhere to the promise made in writing, we will not let the mills start crushing," Shetti said.