Rupesh Samant

Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji

Panaji, Jul 30: Following a protest by sugarcane growers near the state-run sugar factory, chief minister Pramod Sawant fixed an appointment with the agitating farmers to address their grievances on Friday.

A group of sugarcane growers in the state had begun an indefinite hunger strike on Wednesday in front of Sanjivani Sugar Factory, a state-run facility at Usgao village in North Goa.

State Cooperation Minister Govind Gawade on Thursday said that the government is sensitive towards the demands of the sugarcane farmers.

“We have offered them a rise in the sugarcane harvesting price from existing Rs 200 per tonne to Rs 600 per tonne. The file was pending with the state government which will be cleared now and the funds would be released by August 7,” he said.

Gawade said that the sugarcane growers are also wary about the fate of the Sanjivani Sugarcane factory which has stopped functioning since last year.

“We are already taking a call on the factory. We have to decide how to restart the factory which has been incurring heavy losses,” he said.

Gawade said that the state government had procured sugarcane from the farmers and sent it to Karnataka for processing last year. “This year too, we will send it for processing,” he said.

Harshad Prabhudesai, vice chairman of Goa Sugarcane Farmers’ Association, said that this year, around 40,000 metric tonne of sugarcane would be harvested compared to 32,000 metric tonne during last year.

Harvesting is taken up in November.

Prabhudesai said that the farmers were on agitation mode as the chief minister had assured in January that the price for harvesting would be increased, but the assurance was not followed up with proper action.

“We also want to know what is the fate of Sanjivani Sugar Factory as it is the only facility in the state where we can take our produce for processing,” he said.