cotton farmers protesting with their damaged crop in Adilabad |
The marketing
department has introduced bar-coded identity cards to cotton farmers and made online
payments compulsory for the CCI from this Kharif to curb irregularities.
But the rules regarding
online payments, which can be easily monitored, do not apply to private cotton traders.
Private cotton traders
are need not to pay the amount to the farmers online for the cotton purchases
and the online payments rule will be applied only to the CCI for its purchases
from the farmers.
The bar-coded cards have
the ‘Real Time Gross Settlement’ (RTGS) and details of farmers, date on their
land and bank accounts and other particulars. There was no rule that
farmers take their cotton produce directly to the market yard and weigh the
produce before dumping it with private traders of ginning and pressing
factories.
The entry of the middlemen
in cotton purchases is certain now, as the rules have been relaxed for private
cotton traders.
Marketing assistant director
T. Srinivas said private cotton traders need not to follow the rules in cotton
purchases as CCI does and added that market yard officials will issue online
‘Thakatti’( bill) for cotton purchases.
During the season last
year, it was found that that private traders and owner of the cotton ginning
and pressing had purchased the cotton from the farmers of the Adilabad district
and Maharashtra at low prices and sold the same to the CCI for minimum support
price, causing huge loss to the farmers.
Cotton commission
agents purchased cotton from the farmers at low price sold hundreds of quintals
on benami names to the CCI. Cotton traders offer Rs
100- 200 more than MSP Rs 4,100 being offering by the CCI which will start purchases
probably from October10.
There were allegations
that Market committee officials have colluded with the private traders, cotton
commission agents and owner of private ginning and pressing factories to prepare
ground for irregularities.
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