Bara, March 16

Sugarcane farmers of Bara today picketed the Shreepur-based Reliance Sugar and Chemical Industry Pvt Ltd protesting the delay in the issuance of purchase order.

According to farmer Krishna Khadka, they decided to agitate after the sugar mill delayed issuing purchase order. “The mill was supposed to issue the order long before, but as it hasn’t happened, our produce has wilted in the field itself, due to which we had to bear loss,” Khadka said, “There had been an agreement between the farmers and the mill owner to pay the former within 35 days after sugarcane is weighed, but the mill has yet to clear the arrears,” he said.

Another farmer Arjun Prasad Dahal, who is also the chairperson of Jitpur Simara Submetropolis-18, said that there had been an agreement between the farmers and representatives of the sugar mill. “As per the agreement, the mill will start issuing purchase order from tomorrow,” he said, warning of a stringent protest from the next week otherwise.

As for the clearing the dues of the past, general manager Manoj Fodar of the mill said the process will start once the mill owner Raj Kumar Gadiya, who is out of the country, returns home.