December 24:  Two out of three sugar mills in Sarlahi have commenced operations. Indushankar Sugar Mills, the nation's largest sugar mill located in Harion, and Mahalakshmi Sugar Mills in Bagdah are now actively involved in crushing sugarcane. The third sugar mill, Annapurna Sugar Mills in Dhankaul, remains closed at present.

Yognarayan Rajak, the Manager of Indushanker Mills, attributed the resumption of operations to the resolution of a recent protest by sugarcane farmers in the district.

The farmers had conducted a protest from last Saturday to Wednesday, urging the government to address their concerns, including fixing the minimum support price of sugarcane and disbursing the Rs 520 million subsidy owed to sugarcane farmers who sold their produce last year.

Rajak informed that the farmers, in a strategic move, decided to escalate their protest to the federal level while allowing the sugar industry to resume operations.

Indushanker Mills has set an ambitious target of crushing approximately 3.5 million quintals of sugarcane in the current season, reflecting an increase from the 2.8 lakh million quintals crushed last year. This surge in production can be attributed to the growing yield of sugarcane this year.

Despite the government setting the price of sugarcane for the current year at Rs 635 per quintal, there is dissent among sugarcane farmers. Kapil Muni Mainali, President of the Nepal Sugarcane Farmers Federation, stated that the farmers do not agree with the government-fixed price. (RSS)