PONDA: Sugarcane farmers Tuesday resigned from the Government appointed Farmers Facilitation Committee in protest against what they called empty promises and failure of the government to start an ethanol plant, at Sanjivani Sugar Factory at Dharbandora.
Farmers also warned to intensify their agitation if Government fails to clear its stand on Sanjivani factory immediately.
In their collective resignation letter to the administrator of the sugar factory, they mentioned that there is no point in staying on the committee as they could not provide any kind of benefit to the sugarcane farmers of Goa.
Six farmers have resigned from the Facilitation Committee which includes Rajendra Desai, Chairman of Sugar Cane Farmers Association and its five other members.
Rajendra Desai said that two months ago farmers staged an agitation in front of Sanjivani Sugar Factory and later carried it on at Azad Maidan, Panjim and had withdrawn it when Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had promised to start an Ethanol plant.
He said relying on the Government promise the sugarcane farmers were glad. But since then two months have passed but there is no move on starting an Ethanol plant. So 750 sugarcane farmers are questioning the future of the Sanjivani Sugar Factory.
“We had no reply to give to the farmers and so collectively we resigned today. We know that CM had put a remark on file as discussed. But farmers want a clarification and demanded minutes of meetings held on the Ethanol plant as well progress of the file on Ethanol plant. The farmers are now in panic due to the uncertain future of Sanjivani,” Desai said.
He said, “We even negotiated with a contractor to start an Ethanol plant, who was ready to pay Rs 1.25 cr rent to the Government and also to guide farmers, but nothing happened on it. Still, we are ready to operate the factory, but Government has not handed it over to us. The farmers said the Administrator is retiring in the next few days and they are strongly opposed to give any extension to him.” since nothing has been done to start an Ethanol plant.”
It may be recalled that Government had shut down the Sanjivani Sugar Factory in 2020 and farmers were assured compensation for five years.
Administrator of the sugar factory Satej Kamat said the Government had already floated a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for an Ethanol plant on PPP mode and by March-end, the process will close. Thereafter the Department of PPP will initiate the process with interested parties.