Goa: Sugarcane farmers intensify protest; seek reopening sugar factory

Panaji: Hundreds of sugarcane farmers demanding the reopening of a sugar factory on Monday intensified the protest by shifting their agitation to the capital city.

The protesters sought to know why the government was hesitating to come clear over the issue.

Started by the protest at Dharbandora on January 3, near the sugar factory, 45 km away from here, on Monday protesters shifted the protest to Panaji and complained that "nobody from the government side came to them to clear their doubts".

"This forced us to protest at Azad Maidan-Panaji, so it will be near to Chief Minister Pramod Sawant or his officers to meet us," farmers told media persons.

President of 'Goa Us Utpadan Sanghatana' (Sugarcane Producers association) Rajendra Desai told IANS that the government has failed to keep its promise of restarting operations of the sugar factory.

"Our demand is that the government should restart factory operations. The Chief Minister had promised us to restart factory with a new set up of ethanol plant. He should tell us when he will start it," Desai said.

According to Desai, "one group was ready to set up an ethanol plant on Public Private Partnership, but despite a certain individual's interest, the government was hesitating to give him nod.

Farmers alleged that they are not getting appointment with Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik for the last three months to discuss the issue.

In July last year, around 200 sugarcane farmers were detained by the police for blocking the national highway at Dharbandora in South Goa while seeking assurance on restarting operations of the lone sugar factory.

"The government had promised us to restart the sugar factory then. But till today, no step has been taken by the government to restart operations," Desai said, adding there are more than 600 farmers dependent on sugarcane cultivation.

In 2020, the state government shut down the operations of the sugar factory and, since then, the local farmers have been selling their produce in the neighbouring states.

'Sanjivani Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana' (Goa's only sugar factory) was set up in 1972.

The sugar factory, however, went into losses in the last one decade, and 4 years ago, its operations were stopped.