ADILABAD: Cotton farmers on Wednesday staged a rasta roko for over four hours on the NH 7 at Punjab hotel chowk here demanding minimum support price (MSP) for their produce. Farmers had locked the market yard gates in the morning and began a sit-in on the NH 7.

Later, Collector R. Subba Rao and Joint Collector A. Dinakar Babu persuaded private traders to purchase at remunerative price the cotton which had arrived in the market on Wednesday.

The Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) agreed to fix the price for the produce based on the quality, as per the formula worked out for the trade.

During the last few days, the price of cotton sunk below the Rs.1,950-mark as against the MSP of Rs.2,010 for a quintal of A grade cotton.

With CCI reluctant to start its MSP operations in full swing, farmers were unable to get remunerative price.

Issued summons

CCI officials were unable to start the operations because of failure to procure on lease the local cotton processing units done every year. Owners of these processing units were issued summons by the Central Customs and Excise department for the service tax levied for processing the cotton of CCI as job work during the previous years.

Service tax issue

The owners want the CCI to shoulder the burden of service tax.

The imbroglio cannot be sorted out at present.

Meanwhile, police resorted to a mild lathicharge at the Adilabad Agriculture Market Committee yard to disperse farmers who broke the windowpanes of the AMC office. Superintendent of Police Anil Kumar was present at the market yard to oversee the operations.

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