Sanjivani sugarcane factory gets bitter taste: Endlessly waits to know how much of its land has been given away by the govt

PANJIM: Those running the Sanjivani sugar factory set up to help sugarcane farmers of Goa to grow their crops and have a ready market have a simple question. How much of the 15 lakh square metres of the land do they still have after the government’s free-flowing largesse of giving it away for no agricultural purposes? In addition loot and encroachment had left  Sanjivani with very little land for anything tangible.

While the land of Sanjivani is being given away, encroached on, and looted from all sides the Sanjivani Administration is left with writing letters to get a report of the status of its own land. It has taken two months for the Revenue and Land & Survey office to inform Sanjivani that they can rely upon a survey that was conducted in 2021. The Deputy Collector of Dharbandora Nilesh Dhaimodkar said, “The survey department has already done a survey two years back. The Sanjivani administration should be having the report.”

A survey of the 15 lakh square metres, leased to the Sanjivani Sugar Cooperative in the year 1972  was sought by the administration after Herald highlighted how more than 4.20 lakh sq mtrs of the 15-lakh allotted to the Sanjivani factory for agricultural purposes is to date being officially given away for non-agricultural purposes in an absolute deviation from the purposes for which these lands were allotted.

When contacted the Administrator of Sanjivani Satej Kamat and enquired regarding the findings of the abovementioned report, he said, “I could not find the report in our records. Administration has been informed regarding the 2021 survey just a week ago. Now, I have written to the authorities to send the copy of the report.”

It is important to note that in addition to the land taken for the government of Goa officially a huge chunk of land has been encroached and two big stone quarries which have been operating for several years have illegally plundered the priceless natural resource of laterite rock.

So far almost one-third of the 15 lakh square metres of land has been taken away for various purposes. The land grab continues even as a big chunk of land was being destroyed by stone quarrying and illegal encroachments.