Kathmandu, Nepal, October 14, 2020: As of the previous years, the sugarcane farmers from various districts of Terai region have assembled again in Kathmandu to protest the government and the sugar mills for failing to implement the past deal to clear their outstanding dues of their products.
The sugarcane farmers have been staging demonstrations in Kathmandu in a daily basis demanding implementation of past deal. The sugarcane farmers and the sugar mills had signed in the five-point agreement in December last year in coordination of the government that their all past dues will be cleared within January.
With the agreement, we returned back to our works but the deal never comes into implementation forcing us to come back again in Kathmandu to protest, Saroj Mishra, coordinator of the Sugarcane Farmers Struggle Committee said.
We have received calls from the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies for talks but we will not sit in the dialogue table until and unless our dues were not cleared as of the past agreement, he said.
Our demonstration and sit in protest would not limit in Maitighar Mandala if our demands were not met on time he said issuing a threat that they will compel to picket Singhadarbar and the prime minister’s official residence in Baluwatar.
The sugarcane farmers have now forwarded a demand that their dues should be paid by the government and the latter should get the money collected from the sugar mill owners.
It is said that four sugar mills namely Shreeram, Lumbini, Indira and Annapurna have yet to pay dues worth of about Rs 500 million to the farmers. Some farmers have a saying that their dues are not paid for more than six years.
