Goa’s only sugar factory has shut shop bring distress to the poor sugarcane farmers. The Sanjivani Sugar Factory which was founded in 1973 has been running at a loss from its very inception. The accumulated losses to date is over Rs 100 crore which is attributed purely due to gross mismanagement amidst allegations of rampant corruption. There has been no transparency and accountability in the functioning of the factory. A very sad and sorry state of affairs which is absolutely unacceptable.
The State run factory set up on a huge 1.5 lakh square meters of land at Dharbandora was running with outdated machinery which was surprisingly second hand machinery bought from a factory in Uttar Pradesh.
On account of shortage of availability of sugarcane, the factory was not operating to its full capacity. The focus of the government now must be to increase the sugarcane cultivation and start the factory initially with a lower capacity so that it is cost effective. This will be a huge relief to the sugarcane farmers who are solely dependent on this income for their sustenance.
AIRES RODRIGUES, Ribandar
