Talks between farmer groups in Maharashtra and chief minister Prithviraj Chavan in Karad on Monday remained inconclusive resulting in the farm bodies deciding to continue with their protest over the fixing of cane prices.

An all-party delegation led by Chavan with farmer leaders from Maharashtra will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to talk about the demands of the sugar industry. An earlier meeting on Saturday between chief minister and opposition party leaders from the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party, along with farmer leaders in Mumbai, also ended in a stalemate.

Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader Raju Shetty said talks with the chief minister on Monday had failed and although he was in favour of the demands made by the state government with regard to export subsidy incentives, creation of a buffer stock, he would continue to agitate for a higher cane price.

Sadabhau Khot, state unit president from the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana, said a final decision on the direction of the agitation will be taken on November 27 after meeting the PM.

Members of the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana have been camping at Pachadeshwar, 10 km from Karad. Meanwhile, sporadic incidences of violence occurred in the state in the last couple of days with reports of 5 state transport buses being torched in Sangli on Saturday.

Raju Shetty has threatened to stall crushing if factories pay anything less than Rs 3,000 a tonne for sugarcane. While the Sharad Joshi-led Shetkari Sanghatana has demanded a cane price of Rs 3,200 per tonne, the Raghunathdada Patil-led Shetkari Sanghatana has demanded a first advance of Rs 3,500 per tonne.

All the three organisation leaders are expected to attend the meeting in Delhi. Raghunathdada Patil said his organization would stop diesel and petrol tankers across the state and would not allow sugar to leave factories unless the government gave in to their demands. His organization will be participating in a dharna at the Jantar Mantar in Delhi with other state farmer organizations on December 12. Vitthal Pawar from the Sharad Joshi-led Shetkari Sanghatana said the agitation would continue.

Last year, most of factories had paid Rs 3,000 a tonne for cane after protests by the producers unions.

The government representatives and sugar factory owners have been maintaining that the fate of the price of sugar hangs on basic factors such as the global and national surpluses as well as the government’s export policies.