Survey to weed out bogus cotton growers in Yavatmal

Yavatmal: In a bid to weed out private traders who may have registered themselves as cotton growers for selling the produce to Maharashtra State Cooperative Cotton Growers Marketing Federation (Cotton Federation) and Cotton Corporation of India (CCI), the authorities have decided to conduct a door-to-door survey to verify genuine farmers.
According to district deputy registrar Ramesh Katke, over 150 employees including assistant registrars, APMC secretaries and others would conduct the survey.
“Over 30,700 cotton growers have registered themselves online with the federation and CCI. Cotton from 11,000 farmers has already been procured since May 3,” said Katke.
“It has come to notice that private traders buy cotton from farmers desperate to have cash in hand by offering rates even below the MSP. The traders then collect 7/12 extracts of the farmers and bring the cotton to be the procurement centres to sell it at much higher rates,” said the DDR.
The authorities suspect that nearly 40% of those who have registered online are not farmers.
After verifying cotton stock on the basis of the 7/12 and details mentioned in the online registry, the farmer would be given a token and accordingly he/she would be allotted date for bringing the carts to the respective ginning factories for procurement.
The survey order has, however, sent shudder waves down the spine of private traders who are operating in the region and amassing huge profit out of the illegal trade.