Vaghela refuses to meet ginners' demand

Ahmedabad, Nov 25 (UNI) Union Textiles Minister Shankersinh Vaghela today refused to meet ginners' demand for lower minimum support price (MSP) for cotton.

The government has increased the MSP for cotton to Rs 2,700- 2,800 per quintal for this year, up by nearly 40 per cent, compared with MSP of last year.

Speaking to mediapersons here, Mr Vaghela said the ginners approach was not fair. Last year, they made very good profit. If this year farmers were getting good price for their produce, the ginners should not protest the high MSP.

He said if ginners were not finding current MSP for cotton profitable, they should not go ahead with production.

''We are passing through global recession and everybody was hit by it. Ginners are no exception,'' he maintained.

Mr Vaghela said the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) had bought around 15 lakh bales of cotton so far. (one bale equals 170 kg). It had established 280 purchase centres to buy cotton all over the country.

''If needed, we will open more purchase centres to meet the flow of the cotton from the farms.'' He said the 40 per cent increase in MSP of cotton was a record in the history of the nation. The CCI was purchasing around 1.5 lakh bales of cotton daily. Farmers were being paid Rs 150 crore on daily basis all over the country. Till now, payment of Rs 2,100 crore has been made to the farmers, he informed.

MORE UNI HT SSS AG1600