High drama ahead of cane crushing at Vellore mill

VELLORE: Cane crushing date was refixed on Thursday in Vellore Cooperative Sugar Mill after high drama. Farmers, earlier threatened to agitate in front of the mill’s administrative office if the crushing inaugural gets postponed.

The Vellore unit, which has earned a name for prompt disbursal of dues to farmers, decided to start crushing on Thursday, December 14. Following a fracas last year, when Water Resources Minister Duraimurugan took umbrage at not being consulted on the crushing date, officials took pains to consult everybody before fixing the date.

Meanwhile, some senior party functionaries informed the mill administration that crushing should be postponed to December 17 as chairman M Anandan will demit office on the evening of December 17. When this news reached farmers, they flocked to the mill office demanding to know why the date was pushed back and who would pay laborers already hired for the 4 days.

“They threatened to stage an agitation in the mill resulting in mill officials informing district officials. The latter immediately contacted the Minister who then told them not to create unnecessary problems and go as per plan.

The popular AIADMK-backed board has been a thorn in the flesh for the ruling DMK as it found it hard to convince farmers that a similar situation would continue even when the board changed.