State announces cotton price hike

Briefing media persons after the two-day cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Narayan Rane said that the prices of cotton have been increased from Rs 2,100 to Rs 2,300 per quintal in view of the demand made by the cotton growers.

“It is true that the State Cotton Growers Federation is in deep financial crisis, with its accumulated losses crossing the Rs 1,000 crore mark. But to protect the interest of the farmers, we have hiked the prices from the ensuing procurement season. The additional burden owing to the hike in prices will be Rs 310 crore,” Rane added.

Rane said that he and Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde had personally called on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Tuesday to press the demand for a five-year extension to the Monopoly Cotton Procurement Scheme. “Vajpayee has assured us that he will personally look into the demand and do the needful,” Rane said.

The federation has so far procured 120 lakh quintals of cotton and Rs 2,357 crore have been paid to the farmers for it. “Each and every cotton grower has been paid the amount,” Rane claimed.

The long pending decision on revision of cotton prices was expedited today in view of the elections to the Lok Sabha. There were strong differences between the alliance partners on the price hike. While BJP put forth that the price should be hiked by Rs 400, the Shiv Sena had opposed it on the ground that it will adversely affect the financial situation, resulting from an additional burden of at least Rs 1,000 crore.

Rane said that against the demand for 128 new tehsils, the cabinet has approved the proposal for 28, which will come into existence of from June 26. “Creation of each tehsil will cost the state exchequer Rs 45 lakh per year,” he said.

The cabinet also decided to regularise all illegal hutments and constructions undertaken prior to January 1, 1985. However, the decision will not be applicable to illegal constructions on government lands in Mumbai. “It was found that there are large number of encroachments on government lands and for various reasons, the department concerned is unable to get the encroachers evicted. Under such circumstances, we decided to regularise such constructions by charging fee from them. We expect to garner Rs 400 crore from the encroachers,” Rane said.

Rane added that the decision will not be applicable to the posh bungalows constructed at Yeoor in Thane district. “That is a separate case,” he said.

Rane further informed that as per the cabinet decision, no permission will be required for construction of house on agricultural land beyond eight kms from the municipal limits of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur, five kms from other municipal corporations and one km beyond the limits of A and B class municipal councils. The policy decision prescribes guidelines for construction of houses on agriculture lands near National, State and Express Highways, he added.

“Specific conditions have been laid down for the purpose in the government proposal, which was approved by the cabinet today,” Rane said.

On the Sahara India Housing Limited’s controversial tourism project, Rane said that following the High Court’s directive to quash the letter of intent, SIHL had submitted a fresh proposal to the alliance government. “As per the directive of the court, we are conducting an inquiry against the land transactions. So far, no decision has been taken on granting a fresh permission to Sahara,” he added.

Rane said that the cabinet approved a proposal for renewal of land leases in the Matheran-Mahabaleshwar belt. “Most of the leases had expired in August 1, 1998. The cabinet decided to renew them with a nominal hike in lease fees,” he said.