NewsKarnataka – Bangalore

Bangalore:  Rice millers have begun an indefinite strike across 23 districts in  Karnataka to oppose the tax target fixed by the government.  Around 1,800 rice mills across the State and owners, irrespective of the variety of paddy they mill are participating in the strike in the areas around Cauvery and Tungabhadra basin area.

The millers and the government have been at loggerheads for the past three months over the higher levy on rice collection target of 5 lakh metric tonnes till next March. The millers, in a year, have not given more than 1.5 lakh metric tonnes of rice to the levy pool.

But the Anna Bhagya scheme has made the government scout for sources, one of which is the levy collection.

Paddy is grown in vast acres in Raichur, Bellary, Mandya, Mysore, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Shimoga districts, Tumkur, Davangere and Belgaum.

On Monday, there was near unanimity among the millers in registering their protest against the ‘unscientific’ levy target.

On the other when the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is in  Delhi, was questioned about the strike he said, “I have instructed two of my Cabinet colleagues to speak to striking mill owners.”