Various pressing issues concerning the cotton growers, particularly the alleged delay in the entry of Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) into the market have come into focus during the visit of a team of Congress leaders to the cotton market yard here on Thursday.
MLC P Sudhakar Reddy and other Congress leaders interacted with the cotton farmers during their visit to the market yard of the Agriculture Market Committee here on Thursday afternoon.
Another team of the Telangana Rythu Sangham headed by its assistant secretary N Nageswara Rao also visited the market yard separately later in the day.
A section of the farmers told the visiting teams that the delay in commencement of cotton procurement by the CCI was making them vulnerable to the “exploitative tactics” of private traders at the market yard.
Venkateshwarlu, a young farmer from Thallada, deplored that the private traders were exploiting the hapless cotton growers by offering them much lower prices on the pretext of “high moisture” content.
The market yard officials apprised the team members of the arrival of around 2,200 bags of cotton to the yard till noon on Thursday.
CCI operations
They also informed the visiting delegation that all arrangements were in place for commencement of operations by the CCI cotton purchase centres and that the process of issuance of identity cards to around 2 lakh cotton farmers in the district was progressing at a brisk pace.
Speaking to newsmen later, Mr Sudhakar Reddy demanded that the government ensure commencement of procurement of cotton by the CCI at the minimum support price expeditiously to save cotton growers from exploitation at the hands of the “errant private traders.”
Any further delay in the entry of the CCI into the market will aggravate the plight of cotton growers, he warned.
Mr. Sudhakar Reddy sought prompt issuance of bar-coded identity cards to all the cotton growers as promised by the State government to eliminate the menace of middlemen and make the auctioning process transparent and accountable.
