The sugarcane in the fields is ready for harvesting, but there is nothing to sweeten the lives of the farmers, who are worried that their produce may just go waste this season. After the crop having stood in the fields for nine months, there is fear that the only sugar factory in Goa may not open its doors to the consignments of sugarcane, as there is a closure notice hanging over it, for not meeting a pollution monitoring norm.
As the sugarcane ripens in the fields, the farmers’ priority is to find a solution to the closure notice that has been imposed on the Sanjivani Sugar factory, a unit that operates for just a quarter of the year, during the sugarcane harvest season. The closure notice by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) is because the unit has not installed the online continuous monitoring station for effluent and stack emission. The unit has claimed that it is not in a financial position to meet the costs of installing the monitoring system. The Goa State Pollution Control Board (GSPCB), on inspection of the unit sought that the unit be given another six months o install the system, requesting that operations be permitted at the factor and itself volunteering to conduct stack emission and effluent monitoring of the unit on a weekly basis.
The Sanjevani factory, the only sugar producing unit in Goa, is a government-aided enterprise that serves the sugarcane farmers in the State by giving them a ready market for their produce. It is, like many other government enterprises running into losses. Farmers allege that it is government mismanagement and negligence that has kept the factory in the red, and that even getting spares for the old machinery used frequently leads to stoppage of work at the factory. The farmers, pointing out that sugarcane factories in Maharashtra are profitable, the only unit in Goa is running in a loss, proposed that the government allow the farmers to run the unit.
But that’s not all that is affecting the sugarcane farmers. This agitation has been occurring even while there are around 56,000 quintals of sugar, approximately worth of Rs 15 crore, lying unsold at the factory which, farmers allege is due to lack of co-operation between the government and its officials. The reason for the sugar remaining unsold is that the Central Government had issued a notification last year directing the sugar be sold at Rs 31 per kg, including GST. There were no buyers at this price, and the unit received quotes much below this price. Permission sought to sell at a lower rate was denied, and so the sugar produced remains in the factory storage areas. The argument of the farmers is that if the sugar had been sold as expected, the earnings might have helped the unit management to take up the maintenance works and begin the sugarcane crushing season on time.
While operations at the unit have not started, after a day’s dharna by sugarcane farmers at the gates of the unit, there came a written assurance from the government that sugarcane crushing operations would commence on December 5, and they would find a way to lift the CPCB order. But, here’s an ultimatum – the farmers have said that if by December 5 operations do not commence, they will take their agitation to Panjim.
And that’s another instance of a failure in the administration process. It is not just the mining affected who find their income taken away, but now sugarcane farmers have also taken to the streets to put forth their problems and seek justice. The sugarcane farmers are threatening to protest in the State capital. The mining affected are already in the process of taking their agitation to the National capital. Perhaps the government should seriously consider the proposal from the group agitating and turn over the management of the Sanjivani Sugar factory to the farmers.
