Ginners in Adilabad allege ‘discrimination’ by CCI

‘In collusion with some officials, a few ginners are managing supply chain’

A heap of cotton at a ginning and pressing unit in Adilabad town.

While the Cotton Corporation of India started procuring the cotton kapas, small and medium ginning and pressing enterprises in Adilabad town allege that they have been ‘discriminated’ and little processing orders were given to them, while the big ginning enterprises were preferred.

This has put them in an unequal position and were rendered unused and their processing capacity is lying idle.

Hundreds of workers are depending on small and medium ginning units and their livelihood is at stake. Of the 28 ginning units in Adilabad town, as many as 14 are small and medium. The enterprisers fear that if no adequate processing orders were placed by CCI, they have no other option than to close down their units for this season. They demand the concerned authorities to probe this discrimination and make them a level playing field to compete with large units.

“Officials of CCI have come under flak for showing disproportionate favouritism to three to four units in the town and had vitiated the competitive atmosphere in the ginning industry,” a ginning unit owner lamented.

By colluding with some officials of CCI, a few ginners are managing the entire supply chain, he alleged.

“While our unit have been getting less amount of kapas than the processing capacity, those who are in close proximity with cotton purchase officers are getting orders beyond their capacity,” another ginner said.

When contacted CCI Assistant General Manager K Maheshwara Reddy said that orders were placed on such units which have a capacity to process in-time. “Factors like installed capacity, ability to process, timeliness to give the output are taken into consideration while placing orders,” he said.

He brushed aside allegations of discriminations and favouritism and said, depending on the needs of CCI, ginner units are chosen to do the work.

However, the unit owners were dismayed at the brazen opinion of the CCI managers and said a thorough inquiry by the Vigilance wing would reveal the ‘goings on’ at the CCI Adilabad.

The CCI procures cotton kapas directly from the producers and sends it to the ginners to separate cotton fibre from the seed bolls and dust particles. The cotton lint is further compressed into bales.

Last year more than four lakh bales were processed in the Adilabad town alone of which over a lakh bales were processed in three to four units.