PANAJI
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday assured the Goa Assembly that a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the ethanol plant at Sanjivani sugar factory would be complete within 45 days.
"The Government of India has given approval for an interest subvention loan of Rs 54.76 crore for the ethanol plant, and the DPR preparation work for the Ethanol Plant is given to Deccan Sugar Technology Association of Pune. They will complete it within 45 days,” said CM Sawant, while replying to the calling attention raised on demand of MLAs Sudin Dhavalikar and Prasad Gaonkar.
CM Sawant said Rs 48.47 crore of financial assistance has been given to the sugar factory in 2020-21 and Rs 5.64 crore in 2021-22.
All-together, Rs 54.11 crore assistance has been given to the sugar factory in the last two years for salary, support price, payment of loan, harvesting charges and operating expenditure, he said.
The chief minister said the government had earlier shifted sugarcane to the Laila sugar factory and the government is now providing support price to farmers and farmers have freedom to sell their sugarcane giving support price.
He said a sugarcane nursery has been raised at Sanjivani factory of 5 acres of land, adding that a 50 per cent subsidy has been given for sugarcane seedlings.
Sudin Dhavalikar pointed out that the sugarcane factory land is being used for mining of laterite stones and said there are three such stone quarries in the area.
He sought to know the exact date when the sugar factory would start and the estimate for the new plant.
Dhavalikar said the ethanol plant would cause pollution problems, but the CM said that aspect would be studied after the DPR is prepared.
Ponda MLA Ravi Naik said a sugar factory is not feasible as Goa sugarcane is not of good quality in Goa and felt that the government should, instead, promote other crops for the farmers, he added.
Poriem MLA Pratapsingh Rane, however, said ethanol manufacturing may enable the plant turn into profit and ICAR expertise could be sought.
However, Sanguem MLA Prasad Gaonkar said the government should either promote sugarcane farming or develop the land as an eco-project and give 10 per cent profit to the farmers.
He said cultivation of vegetables is not feasible as they are perishable products.
Curtorim MLA Reginald Lourenco alleged that the government plans to shut down the sugarcane plant and it would affect the whole farming community.
There were some heated arguments between the CM and Lourenco on this issue.
