Meerut (Uttar Pradesh), Nov 19: Farmers have gathered under the banner of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) here to demand payment of arrears for their sugarcane crop.
They also demanded an increase in the Minimum Support Price from the present rupees 110 per quintal to rupees 135 per quintal.
"The way the farmers are being persecuted and their voices muzzled are wrong. The sugar mills are not paying arrears due to the farmers. If farmers ask for their rights, their voice is stopped. I will also raise this issue in Parliament," said Avtar Singh Bhadana, a lawmaker representing Faridabad constituency in Haryana.
They also called for the release of Mahendra Singh Tikait, the chief of BKU, who was arrested last week for delivering an inflammatory speech.
Uttar Pradesh is the second largest sugar producing state in the country. The country is the world's second biggest producer and largest consumer of the sweetener.
India's population of more than one billion people annually consumes about 19 million tonnes of sugar.
Sitting on huge sugarcane extracted stockpile, the government made mandatory five per cent ethanol blending with mineral oil in October and allowed exports to insulate farmers from crashing domestic sugar prices.
The country emerged as a major net sugar exporter in 2007-08. (ANI)