A high-level delegation of the Telangana government has been given assurance that cotton procurement would be done by the CCIs all five days in a week from all the farmers who had proper I-cards irrespective of the quantity they bring in to the CCI centres in the state and also they would be handed over payments within 48 hours of the sale.

This assurance was given by Union Minister of Textiles Santosh Kumar Gangwar to the delegation consisting of Deputy Chief Ministers Kadiyam Srihari and Mahmood Ali, minister Pocharam Srinivas Reddy, TRS MPs and Special Representatives.

This assurance came when the Minister was told that the CCIs had been buying up to 40 quintals from the farmers forcing them to flock to the private traders who were offering hardly Rs 3,500 for the same whereas the Government was offering Rs 4,100 per quintal.

As private traders in Gujarat were offering a higher price for the farmers, the CCIs should be asked to buy more from Telangana farmers instead of from Gujarat, the delegation appealed to the Centre.

The Secretary of the Ministry, S K Panda, would be deputing a joint secretary from the department on December 7 and 8 to the State to review the situation, the delegation was told.

Later when the delegation met Union Minister for Agriculture Radha Mohan Singh seeking substantial assistance to tackle drought in the state, it was told that a team of officials would be visiting the State for reviewing the situation.

The Union minister assured the delegation that the farmers would be given all assistance once the report was submitted to him by the team of officials.

Around 231 mandals had been declared drought hit in the state while two districts, Mahbubnagar and Ranga Reddy, were completely hit by drought. It sought Rs 2,500 crore drought relief out of which Rs 1,000 crore as an immediate help.