Anantapur MP Talari Rangaiah met Cotton Corporation of India(CCI) officials in Guntur and prevailed upon them to open a cotton purchase centre at Gooty as the district had been producing BT-II cotton in more than 55,000 hectares in Gooty, Peddavaduguru, Yadiki, Pamidi and Tadipatri mandals.
“No purchase centre was opened in the district after 2014. The local marketing department officials, however, had always maintained that the centres were opened at Tadipatri and Gooty, yet farmers did not come here to sell the stock,” Mr. Rangaiah told The Hindu on Wednesday.
A recent report in these columns on May 29 had highlighted this issue. He personally visited several houses in Peddavaduguru and saw thousands of quintals of cotton stocked in bedrooms / rented houses there as prices had fallen drastically.
‘MSP is inadequate’
Traders are offering only ₹4,000 per quintal against ₹5,550 per quintal Minimum Support Price(MSP), hence the CCI has promised to open a purchase centre during the current season and buy stocks available in Anantapur district, Mr. Rangaiah added.
“My priority will be to get an entrepreneur open one or two ginning mills in the area so that the produce can be consumed locally instead of sending it to Tirupur or Coimbatore. Now the growers need to travel to Adoni and Yemmiganur in Kurnool district and Bellary in Karnataka to sell their produce,” he observed.
Textile park
Mr. Rangaiah met Industries and Handlooms Minister Mekapati Gautam Reddy in the Secretariat on Wednesday and prevailed upon him to set up a textile park by utilising the 65 acres of land available on the premises of Guntakal spinning mills, which was no more functional. The MP said such a park can have 200 MSME units employing 5,000 people.
The Minister immediately asked District Collector Gandham Chandrudu to prepare a blueprint for the proposed textile park and submit it to the government. Principal secretary of the Industries Karikala Valavan was also present on the occasion.
While requesting the Minister to get laboratories and other equipment in the 11 new polytechnics being established in the State, the MP wanted Mining Department started in the Rayadurg Polytechnic College.
