Kathmandu, December 15
The government has decided to arrest owners of sugar mills that have failed to pay outstanding dues worth millions of rupees to the sugarcane farmers.
A meeting of three ministers–Home Minister Ram Bahadur Thapa, Agriculture Minister Ghanashyam Bhusal, and Industry Minister Lekh Raj Bhatta–made the decision on Tuesday afternoon.
The decision comes at a time when sugarcane farmers from various southern districts of Nepal have come to Kathmandu and have been staging a demonstration demanding the outstanding payments.
The farmers had launched a demonstration at the same place in December last year for several days demanding the sugar mills pay them outstanding bills on time. The agitation had ended in a five-point agreement, in which the government had agreed to coordinate efforts to make industrialists clear all dues within January 21.
However, one year later, the farmers came back to the capital claiming the government and the industrialists cheated them.
