Cotton farmers stage protest in Khammam

Commotion broke out when some ryots entered into a heated argument with the staff charging them with refusing to purchase their cotton, citing high moisture content.

Hundreds of cotton bags lie around the cotton market yard as farmers desperately wait for the purchase of their cotton in Khammam on Monday. PHOTO: G.N. RAO

The strict insistence on the permissible level of moisture content in cotton by the staff of the purchase centre of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) at the cotton market yard had led to mild commotion here on Monday.

Scores of farmers have arrived with hundreds of bags of their cotton produce at the yard in the morning. An estimated over 40,000 bags of cotton had reached the market yard till noon.

The farmers anxiously waited for their turn to sell their cotton produce at the assured minimum support price of Rs. 4,050 per quintal even as the transactions at the CCI purchase centre proceeded at a relatively slow pace.

Commotion broke out at the yard when a section of the aggrieved farmers entered into a heated argument with the staff concerned charging them with refusing to purchase their cotton by citing high moisture content.

Few among them have set ablaze some quantity of their cotton produce in front of the yard in a symbolic act of protest against the alleged rejection of their cotton by the staff of the CCI’s purchase centre.

It is unfair on the part of the CCI staff to adopt a rigid stand in regard to the moisture content in the cotton, rued Lakshmaiah, a cotton grower from Govindapuram in Bonakal mandal.

I had brought 80 bags of cotton after taking due care to prevent high moisture content in it, he asserted, deploring that the CCI staff refused to buy his cotton saying it contained 18 per cent moisture.

The government should instruct the CCI to relax the norms relating to the moisture content and buy the entire cotton produce from the farmers to bail us out of the difficult situation, contended Harish, a farmer of Patharlapadu in Chintakani mandal.

Over 20,000 bags of cotton have been purchased till Monday afternoon, said V. Shiva Shankar, senior purchase officer, CCI.

We have been procuring cotton containing the permissible level of 8 to 12 per cent of moisture from the farmers at the MSP promptly, he said, adding that only the cotton, which contained higher levels of moisture much above the prescribed level, was being rejected.