As the textile mills of the South Indian region are running short of quality cotton, the textile industry has requested the textile minister to direct Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) to offload cotton in the market who in order to safeguard the interest of the farmers had procured 86 lakh bales of cotton under minimum support price (MSP) operations.

Due to fall in cotton prices, CCI procured bales of cotton mainly from Andhra Pradesh and Telengana but it has only offloaded 3 lakh bales of cotton and is holding the balance of 83 lakh bales, the south Indian textile industry claimed.

T. Rajkumar, chairman, Southern India Mills' Association (SIMA) said that though CCI has temporarily suspended sale of cotton and as a result a large number of textile mills are running short of quality cotton as the same is not available in the open market. They have urged the textile minister to direct CCI to immediately start selling of cotton by e-auction directly to the actual users with liberal credit norms considering the current financial crisis being faced by the spinning mills.

The SIMA chairman also appealed the minister to advice CCI to avoid quoting higher prices than the market prices.

The spinning mills are facing problem due to continuing glut in the yarn markets and delay in getting TUF (textile upgrade fund) subsidies and other government dues.