Similarly with Aradwad. The private Indo Sugar factory controlled by Deshmukh’s son Amit — it took over the sick Balaghat sugar factory — refused to crush his cane. Amit, who is the Chairman of the Vikas Sugar Factory and also controls Indo Sugar, says that neither Pujari nor Aradwad were members of the sugar factory.

“The sugarcane of members has to be taken for crushing first. The region has seen a sugarcane glut and factories are unable to cope up with it. Hence, we are unable to do anything despite our wishes,” he said.

In Latur, records with the state cooperation department reveal that since January 2006, 24 farmers have committed suicide. Seven of these have occurred this year when the sugarcane cane crisis began. At least three of these seven were marginal sugarcane farmers. Since 2004, Latur has recorded 28 farmer suicides — five in 2004, six in 2005 and 17 in 2006.

Ironically, sugarcane farmers have always been considered the pampered lot, thanks to the politically influential sugar lobby. The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) report on farmers suicides in Vidarbha in 2005 had noted how the minimum support price for crops announced by the government did not meet the cost of cultivation. The only exception was sugarcane, where the loss to the farmer was minimised at 12 per cent. “Is sugarcane being cross-subsidised at the expense of cash crops,” the study had asked.

Now farmers are getting desperate. In Ujed village in nearby Shirol Anantpal taluka, Kisan Dadarao Dobale (51) sold off part of his land and house to grow sugarcane on a 4-acre farm in the hope of a good harvest. But local sugar factories, including the one controlled by former chief minister Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar, refused to crush his cane.

... contd.