New Delhi, Mar 11 (KNN) With the price of cotton having risen above the minimum support price (MSP), the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) will not undertake any procurement under MSP operations from March 2013, an official statement said.
The Ministry of Textiles in December 2012 issued guidelines to streamline procurement operations, following comprehensive reviews of cotton procurement under MSP operations.
“It formulated a mandi operation plan that made it imperative for physical verification of stocks by vigilance teams, procurement to be coterminous with storage area available, out-turn verification, moisture content verification and ensuring adequate documentation by Agricultural Produce Marketing Committees (APMCs) and adequate fire prevention measures.”
Further, norms for inspection and vigilance supervision by senior management of CCI were issued with measures to strengthen Board level supervision, according to the official statement issued by the Minister of Textiles Anand Sharma in the RajyaSabharecently.
Earlier in the winter session of Parliament 2012, the Ministry of Textiles received one reference from the LokSabha Secretariat which cited that middlemen posing as farmers were selling cotton to CCI.
To address the issue, supervisory measures for farmer identification were further strengthened with procurement taken up under the strict supervision of an official from the state government and CCI to ensure that procurement was directly from farmers.
In this regard, according to an official statement, CCI was later directed to enhance coordination with the state government and district collectors with APMCs being responsible for farmer identification.
On Feb 8 2013, a committee headed by the former Andhra Pradesh high court judge, Justice G Bikshapathi, visited the Warangal agriculture market yard, one of the largest cotton markets in the state, following a flash protest by the cotton farmers on being denied MSP.
The Minister stated that the committee found that CCI had not been following the guidelines either on opening the notified procurement centres or on offering proper value to the farmers' produce.
Following the fall in prices of cotton below MSP, the Ministry of Textiles in consultation with the State Government of Andhra Pradesh and CCIhas put in place an effective mechanism for conduct of timely and efficient MSP operations by operationalization of 100 procurement centres in the districts of Warangal, Guntur and Adilabad. (KNN/Gunj)