Union Textile Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Sunday said the Centre had stopped registration of cotton export contracts to ensure availability of cotton for the domestic market.
Refuting the allegations of the CPI(M) that the government had only temporarily stopped export of cotton, the Minister in a statement clarified that it was the policy of his ministry that only excess cotton, after meeting local requirements, should be exported.
“This is also the stand of the DMK government,” he said while responding to CPI(M) state secretary G. Ramakrishnan’s allegation that the DMK government was adopting dual standard on cotton export.
CPI(M)’s allegation was that Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi wrote to the Prime Minister against export of cotton only after the government’s decision faced strong objection from the weavers.
Recalling Mr Karunanidhi’s letter to the Prime Minister on May 19 and again on September 23, Mr Maran said he also argued against export of cotton in the group of ministers meeting chaired by the Finance Minister on September 28.
Mr Maran said his ministry was actually for export of cloths, instead of allowing cotton export.
“This will create more employment,” he said.
The Minister explained that current year cotton production in the country had been calculated to be 325 bales and the local requirement would be 270 lakh bales of cotton.
“The 1931 textile units in Tamil Nadu require 100 lakh bales of cotton. Though cotton is cultivated in 1.5 lakh hectares, the total production in the state is between 3.5 lakh and 4 lakh bales of cotton. This situation led to the Chief Minister writing to the Prime Minister against export,” Mr Maran said.
