Unhappy with the Centre’s Fair Remunerative Price (FRP) and the state’s State Advised Price (SAP) employed for evaluating the worth of their produce, sugarcane farmers in Western Uttar Pradesh are rising in protest.

While the Centre’s FRP prescribes farmers to sell sugarcane at Rs 130 per quintal, the state’s SMP fixes the rate at Rs 107 per quintal.

“We demand that the farmers be paid at Rs 250 per quintal of their produce. Thousands of farmers are protesting in demand of reasonable prices for the sugarcane they sell to mill owners. The Centre is trying to capture the power vested in the sugar lobby of Western UP,” said Choudhary Ajay Veer Singh, district president of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which is supporting the farmer protests.

Sugarcane farmers have staged regular protests in areas like Meerut, Baghpat, Pilakhuwa, Modinagar and Garh Mukteshwar. After reports of protestors blocking tracks at the Naya Ghaziabad station, various trains from Delhi had to be rescheduled on Monday.

“The protestors uprooted rail tracks in Garh and in Bhagpat. In Meerut and Modinagar, they blocked traffic on streets and no trains were allowed to ply. The farmers are demanding their rights. We are yet to get our due,” said Karmjeet Singh, a sugarcane farmer of Bulandshahr.

The farmers plan to organise a Mahapanchayat in Dadri on November 17 and November 18 to plan and expand their protests.

“We will listen to other framers and form our agenda and strategy based on the advice tendered by them,” said Rakesh Tikait of Bhartiya Kisan Union.