Lucknow:
A sugarcane farmer committed suicide today in the Bastauli village of the Lakhimpur Kheri district in Uttar Pradesh, police said.
In a suicide note, 45-year-old Satyapal Singh claimed he was unwell and could not repay his agricultural debt of more two lakh rupees taken from various banks.
Satyapal was fired two years ago from a sugar mill where he worked as a labourer. He was fighting a case against the sugar mill.
His losses mounted when his crop failed due to excessive rains this year. His family claims that payments were also due to him from sugar mills for the case he had supplied last year.
Sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh have stalled production after refusing to accept the government's purchase price of Rs 290 per quintal.
Farmers in the western Uttar Pradesh district of Muzaffarnagar have been protesting against mill owners for not purchasing their produce at the price fixed by the government.
In the meantime the Allahabad high court has asked the Akhilesh Yadav government to end the stalemate between farmers and mill owners within a week.