Kolhapur: Demanding a first instalment of Rs 4,500 per tonne for sugarcane, farmers of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana staged a road blockade on Tuesday, November 3, at the Kini toll plaza on the Pune-Bengaluru National Highway in Kolhapur district, bringing traffic on the busy corridor to a complete standstill, ChiniMandi reported. The protest was led by the organisation's founder-president and former MP Raju Shetti, and vehicles coming from Pune were diverted via Waghwadi Phata.

Source: ChiniMandi

The highway blockade is the sharpest step so far in an agitation that has been building across the sugar belt for days: the Sanghatana has been running camp protests outside sugar mills across Kolhapur district, and its leaders have declared that the agitation will not be called off until farmers receive the first instalment of Rs 4,500 per tonne. Marathi news reports said the blockade at Kini toll plaza continued for a second day on Wednesday, November 4, with protesters eating at the toll plaza itself and a heavy police contingent deployed at the site.

Shetti has alleged that sugar millers in Maharashtra and Karnataka have joined hands to keep the first cane payment low. He claimed Karnataka millers had decided not to pay more than Rs 3,500 per tonne, while Maharashtra mills had adopted district-wise limits — Rs 3,600 to Rs 3,700 per tonne in Kolhapur district, Rs 3,600 in Sangli and Rs 3,500 in Pune district — and alleged that millers from Belagavi to Pune were acting together to restrict prices. These are the organisation's allegations; the mills' response has not been reported.

Source: ChiniMandi

On Wednesday the agitation intensified further, with the Sanghatana warning that it could escalate the protest by disrupting the supply of milk and vegetables to Mumbai and Pune if the state government fails to intervene and resolve the deadlock, according to a News89 report on the Maharashtra developments. Reports in Marathi media said two rounds of talks, including a round chaired by Guardian Minister Prakash Abitkar, ended without a breakthrough, leaving the blockade in place as the crushing season gets under way.

The cane-price fight lands in a season already dominated in Maharashtra by the drought declared in 304 of the state's 358 talukas and the state's Rs 5,000 advance relief payment to farmers. The Sanghatana's demand is for the mills' first instalment alone to reach Rs 4,500 per tonne — well above the rates it says mills are preparing to offer — and its highway blockade on one of western Maharashtra's main freight corridors gives the demand immediate economic weight: every day the Kini toll plaza stays blocked, traffic between Pune and Bengaluru, including the trucks that serve the region's farms and factories, is forced onto diversions.