Cotton farmers hopes torn asunder

Yalala: Farmers who come with hopes of earning good returns on their hard-grown cotton at the purchase centre of Cotton Corporation of India are getting dejected. They had to wait in long queues to sell their produce here on Tuesday.

But much to the chagrin of farmers, staff at the purchase center are allegedly rejecting the produce on the pretext of low quality and substandard. Several farmers have been trying to sell their produce for several days. Venkata Reddy, a farmer from Damarached in Basheerabad mandal, cultivated cotton in his 17 acres of land. He reached the center, thinking that he would get minimum supportive price (MSP).

But his produce was rejected by the staff who claimed it was not up to the required standards. Chandraiah, another farmer from Bomraspet, also met with same fate. He said the staff at CCI told him that only half of the cotton was good. Farmers said it was not fair that the crop, which they cultivated with great pains, should be rejected on flimsy grounds. "What would happen to our investments, toil. How will we pay off loans," they asked in anguish.

Some farmers face a different issue. They said they did not receive the payment even after 15 days. The farmers took their woes to the notice of local TRS leader Gopal Reddy. He too received a blunt reply from one Rosaiah of CCI centre. Gopal Reddy expressed anger over the behavior of CCI officials.

"Due to their attitude, the state government's initiatives are being undermined," he said. He also said that he would complain about the issue to Agriculture Minister Niranjan Reddy and Education Minister Sabitha Indrareddy.

Tandur market committee secretary Praveen Kumar Reddy also enquired with the CCI officials about the issue. They replied that the cotton was rejected because the farmers failed to produce-related documents.