Cane farmers clash with police; protests intensify in Maharashtra

Protests by sugarcane growers in western Maharashtra, demanding better price for their produce, intensified on Wednesday with agitators torching a police jeep in the sugar belt of Kolhapur, setting up road blockades and pelting stones.  In Sangli district the police retaliated by firing in the air. A youth, identified as Praveen Patil, was reportedly injured at Ashta village when farmers tried to set ablaze a gas tanker.