The Southern India Mills’ Association has appealed to the Union Textile Minister to intervene and urge the Gujarat Government to take steps and control adulteration in cotton ginned in that State.
Chairman of the association M. Senthil Kumar has said in a press release, textile mills in Tamil Nadu purchase over 100 lakh bales of cotton and only five lakh of this is from Tamil Nadu.
The Shankar-6 variety, which comes from Gujarat, is among the popular varieties bought by the mills as it is suitable to produce hosiery yarn for the garment sector.
For the last few years, the textile mills in the south are facing problem of adulteration in the cotton purchased from Gujarat as cotton waste is mixed with raw cotton.
The industry took up the issue with the Gujarat Government and the Gujarat Ginners’ Association in December last year. But, there is no action.
Hence, the mills are reducing purchases from Gujarat. The units are, instead, sourcing from States such as Telangana and also importing from African countries. Cotton imports went up last season to 23 lakh bales from the usual five to six lakh bales.
The Union Textile Minister should persist with the Gujarat Government and industry to bring down the adulteration levels, he added.
