Press Releases Archive

The Lok Satta Party today demanded that the Government facilitate payment of a remunerative price for sugarcane to arrest the decline in the area of cultivation and ensure that sugar is available to the consumer at a reasonable price.

Talking to the media, party spokespersons V. Laxman Balaji and Mrs. Y. Ramadevi pointed out that while sugar factories in Maharashtra paid Rs.2100 per ton of cane including harvesting and transport charges last year, those in Andhra Pradesh did not pay more than Rs.1500 per ton. Cane farmers received Rs.1900 per ton in Punjab, Rs.1800 in Haryana and Rs.1600 in Uttar Pradesh.

The Lok Satta leaders said that the acreage under sugarcane has slumped from the normal 4 lakh hectares to 1.5 lakh hectares as cane farming has become unviable.

The present sugar crisis in the country which has resulted in the sugar price shooting up to Rs.30 and more a kg also underlined the need to bring down costs of production and boost productivity through better agricultural practices and mechanization.

Had the Government ensured a remunerative price to farmers, the need for import of costly sugar would not have arisen, the leaders said.

Lok Satta Party President Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan will be flagging off the party’s ‘surajya’ movement in municipalities all over the State by addressing a meeting in Chandanagar division of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation on September 20.

Talking to the media, party spokespersons Katari Srinivasa Rao and Mrs. Y. Ramadevi said that the party proposed to launch the movement in one division or ward of every municipality demanding formation of people-elected government in every division/ward so that people get the services they need.

Dr. JP will be holding an interactive session with people drawn from all fields at the HUDA Colony grounds in Chandanagar at 4-00 p.m. on September 20 to ascertain the problems of people in all the six divisions of the Serilingampalli Assembly constituency and explain how they could be resolved with their tax remittances. An exhibition on people’s problems and possible solutions will be held at the venue.

The Lok Satta has been demanding that the Government make a per capita grant of Rs.1000 to every municipality and panchayat so that locally elected people’s committees could resolve people’s problems with the grant.

The first phase of the movement will be carried on until December 9, International Anti Corruption Day.

The Lok Satta leaders demanded that the Government take stringent measures like strengthening laws to prevent atrocities against women against the backdrop of the attack by a love-stricken boy on a girl and her parents in Rajahmundry. Such incidents mirrored the failure of the Government as also our society in safeguarding women.