Lucknow: Farmers of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) staged a protest in front of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Saturday morning by burning sugarcane, potato and paddy demanding hike in the Minimum Support Prices of these crops. The demonstration was held after Yogi Adityanath government hiked the State Advisory Price(SAP) of the sugarcane by Rs 10 per quintal for all varieties two days back. The farmers sat on a ''dharna'' blocked the main road on the Vidhan Sabha marg in the early hours on Saturday. However, on the arrival of large number of security personnel, the squatters were removed from the road after around 2 hours of their protest. The UP government had hiked the price of the sugarcane to Rs 325/quintal from Rs 315 for the early variety and Rs 315/quintal from Rs 305 of the common variety. BKU leader Harinam Singh Verma said here on Saturday that the BJP government has insulted the farmers by raising the price of sugarcane by just Rs ten. " Yogi has played a bad joke with the farmers which will not be tolerated by the cane growers," he added. The BKU has demanded that the SAP of sugarcane should be Rs 450 per quintal. Similarly, the MSP of paddy should be Rs 2,500 per quintal and of potato Rs 1,000 per quintal. UNI
