Panaji, Jan 9 (IANS): Sugarcane farmers of Goa on Tuesday withdrew their protest after Chief Minister Pramod Sawant assured them to restart the operations of the Sugar factory.

Hundreds of sugarcane farmers demanding the reopening of a sugar factory on Monday had intensified the protest by shifting their agitation to the capital city.

The protesters had sought to know why the government was hesitating to come clear over the issue.

Started by the protest at Dharbandora on January 3, near the sugar factory, 45 km away from here, on Monday protesters shifted the protest to Panaji and complained that "nobody from the government side came to them to clear their doubts."

After withdrawing the protest on Tuesday, President of 'Goa Us Utpadan Sanghatana' (Sugarcane Producers association) Rajendra Desai told IANS that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has assured them to restart the factory.

“Chief Minister has told us that he will start the factory next year. Hence, we will start our process of sugarcane cultivation,” Desai said.

Sawant said that an advertisement for ‘Request for Quotation’ has also been published on Tuesday and the contractor will be taken on board in the next three months.

“Their issue is resolved. They were getting all the compensation, I don’t know why they staged a protest,” he said after the delegation of farmers met him.

Government has issued an RFQ for redevelopment of the sugar factory with production of ethanol on Public Private Partnership.

In 2020, the state government shut down the operations of the sugar factory and, since then, the local farmers have been selling their produce in the neighbouring states.

'Sanjivani Sahakari Sakhar Karkhana' (Goa's only sugar factory) was set up in 1972.

The sugar factory, however, went into losses in the last one decade, and four years ago, its operations were stopped.