Team Herald
SANGUEM: Earlier with the sugarcane cultivators demanding for the release of their payment by the government, now the truck owners, who have transported the sugarcane to Laila Sugar Factory, at Kolhapur, urged the government for immediate release of the final instalment due to them.
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“A meeting is scheduled at Sanjivani Sugar Factory on Monday to take a final call on this count after discussing the issue with other associations,” informed a member of Shetkari Sanghatna from Sanguem Francisco Mascarenhas.
Affected truck owners said that around 22 trucks from Goa were used in the transportation of sugarcane to Kolhapur of which around 12 truck owners were from Sanguem area.
“The total dues payable to the truck owners were around Rs 20 lakh and the government has paid partial amount towards the transportation cost in two instalments and an amount of Rs 9 lakh is left to be paid to the truckers from the Sanguem area,” mentioned the affected truck owners, who urged the government to pay the same before the Ganesh Chaturthi.
The truck owners said that the government has not specified any date for the payment of the final amount and this has kept the truck owners in dark as to when the balance amount would be released.
“However, since a considerable amount of time has elapsed and as Ganesh Chaturthi is round the corner it would be highly appreciated if the payment is made by the end of coming week,” the truck owners added.
Meanwhile, severe apprehensions are raised among the sugarcane cultivators in the State as to what benefit the government and the Sanjivani Sugar Factory have finally got by transporting the sugarcane from Goa to Laila Sugar Factory at Kolhapur.
A prominent sugarcane cultivator from Sanguem speaking on the condition of anonymity said that in the total exercise of transporting the sugarcane to Kolhapur based Laila Sugar Factory, the government incurred cost of not less than Rs 7,000 per ton.
Giving a detailed account of the aforesaid amount, the sugarcane cultivator informed that an amount of Rs 1,000 per ton was paid to the sugarcane farmers towards the harvesting charges and an amount of Rs1,500 per ton was paid for the truckers involved in transporting the sugarcane to Kolhapur. In addition to Rs 3,600 was paid to the farmers to compensate for the cost of sugarcane supplied to the factory besides other cost.
“However, what the government has got in return from the Kolhapur based factory is not known by the stakeholders as of now,” claimed the farmers.
Incidentally, when the Sanjivani Sugar Factory was in operation, the government not alone earned from the sugar produced at the factory. But the by-product such as molasses was in high demand among the liquor industry and was also procured by the Goa Dairy at a whopping price of Rs 9,500 to Rs 10,000 per ton.
“But in the instance case, the government seems to be hurriedly taken the decision of transporting the sugarcane to Kolhapur based factory and in return got nothing but incurred huge losses which otherwise could have been minimised if the farmers were paid only for the standing crop at the rate of Rs 3,600 per ton.
In such an event, the government would have saved the cost of harvesting and transporting totally amounting to Rs 2,500 per ton. The farmers could have been permitting to take the decision to dispose the standing crop on their own and which the farmers were willing to do,” informed a sugarcane cultivator from Sanguem.
“Given the present scenario and considering the huge cost involved in transporting the sugarcane to Kolhapur, the sugarcane cultivators from across Goa through their respective associations are schedule to meet at Sanjivani Sugar Factory for a special meeting,” said Mascarenhas.
Mascarenhas said that given the present COVID pandemic, the sugarcane cultivators will also not get the labour to harvest the crop in the coming season. All the labour required for harvesting come from the neighbouring States. However, with the fear of coronavirus pandemic still looming large, there are no possibilities of the sugarcane cultivators getting labour for harvesting in the coming season.
