Demanding a Minimum Support Price of Rs 5,500 for cotton per quintal, the YSR Congress Party today urged the Centre as well as the Telangana government to procure the farm produce from cotton-growers only through authorised agencies.
"We demand that the state and the Centre should ensure that farmers get Rs 5,500 per quintal as MSP on cotton. Besides that, cotton should be procured by the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) or authorised government agencies to avoid middlemen," Khammam MP and party's working president for Telangana P Srinivasa Reddy and party leader B Janak Prasad told reporters here.
Farmers are in distress and the TRS, which had promised to work for their welfare, should help them out, he said.
"The situation is bad and farmers are being exploited by middlemen who pay only Rs 3,000 to the cotton growers although the MSP was fixed at Rs 4,080," they said.
Cotton is one of the most important crops in Telangana grown on 17 lakh hectares, standing next to Gujarat, they said adding, "The government should ensure a fair deal to the farmers to usher in the promised golden Telangana."
Reddy and Prasad said they would meet the state chief minister and the governor and submit the memorandum of demands on the issue.
