CM asked to desist from confusing cotton-growers

Tracing the history of cotton procurement scheme in the state, the Sanghatana leader said, cotton-growers suffered during the Congress regime. It was during the non-Congress rule that their interest was protected, he added, citing the decisions taken during the Progressive Democratic Front Government in late 1970’s and again during the saffron alliance period from 1995 to 1999.

He alleged that the Chief Minister was trying to hide the fact that the successive Congress governments not only paid less to cotton-growers but also deducted a certain amount from the payments made to them. It was during the Shiv Sena-BJP rule that the cotton-growers were offered a higher rate of Rs 2,100 per quintal.Moreover, there was no deduction from the cotton payments during SS-BJP rule, he said.

Blasting the successive Congress governments for exploiting the cotton-growers, Jawandhiya expressed the fear that history will be repeated this year as the Congress-led Government is in no mood to run the monopoly scheme in its present form. "It is clear from the Chief Minister’s statements that cotton scheme would be run in some different fashion and the procurement rates would not be more that Rs 1,700 per quintal", he said and termed it as nothing but clear exploitation of the cotton-growers.

About the Chief Minister’s statement that the cotton prices in the country were bound to fall because of free import of cotton in the liberalised policy, the Sanghatana leader said Deshmukh should stop giving such excuses. He said if the state government is sincere in protecting the cotton-growers’ interests then it should prevail upon the Centre to impose import duty on cotton as was done in case of sugar. At the same time, the state government should also consider giving subsidy to facilitate the export of cotton on the lines of the subsidy scheme for exporting grapes.