About 100 people turn up to NFU protest march in Labasa

About 100 people took part in the National Farmers Union protest march in Labasa Town today before they presented a petition addressed to Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama at the Commissioner Northern’s Office.

There are 3,442 cane growers in Labasa.

Fijivillage was on the ground from the NFU office to the Commissioner Northern’s Office and the head count taken confirmed just about 100 people in the march.

NFU President Surendra Lal had told Fijivillage that they were expecting between 500 to 1,000 people today.

When questioned on the low turnout and whether all the marchers were growers as some people standing in the town area joined the march, Lal said that it is not a matter of numbers and he even said that he hates us for clarifying some issues.

Lal confirmed that 420 out of 3,442 growers in Labasa signed the petition.

When asked on how and why they could not get majority of the cane growers in Labasa to sign the petition, Lal maintained that the number of signatures did not increase from yesterday because the farmers stay far and wide.

The NFU President had earlier said that none of $10.2 million government assistance has been provided to the cane growers in Labasa and this is the reason why they had decided to have a protest march and give a petition to the Prime Minister.

Fijivillage sought clarification from the Fiji Sugar Corporation.

FSC’s Chief Operating Officer Navin Chandra has stated that out of $10.2 million total grant given by the government, only $3.2 million went directly to pay off the loans taken by 3,949 cane growers in Viti Levu.

Chandra says on top of that, $7 million was paid off from the 4th cane payment deductions for 8,754 cane growers in Fiji.

He says $3.6 million out of this $7 million went to 2,039 Labasa growers out of the total 3,442 growers.

When Fijivillage presented these figures to NFU’s Surendra Lal, he first said that none of the cane growers in Labasa have been assisted and later contradicted the statement and said that 1,000 growers have not been assisted.

But he said that the cane growers will come out in numbers for the protest march today.

Lal says the petition also wants a guaranteed cane payment of $100 per tonne, a special $10 per tonne payment especially to help the Labasa growers for the new season, the removal of the two Sugar Reform bills and an inquiry to be conducted into FSC.