Hyderabad: BRS Working President K T Rama Rao on Sunday accused both the union and Telangana governments of “reckless negligence” as a severe cotton procurement crisis deepens across the state, leaving lakhs of farmers unable to sell their crop.
In a statement here, KTR said nearly 50 lakh acres were under cotton cultivation this year but neither government had shown the urgency required to protect farmer incomes.
He alleged that despite repeated visits to Delhi by Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, the cotton issue has not been raised meaningfully, and MPs from both the ruling parties have failed to press the Centre for action.
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KTR blamed the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) for not procuring sufficient cotton, citing reasons such as high moisture content, problems with Kapas mobile app registrations and alleged corruption in ginning mills and grading processes.
“CCI has bought only 1.12 lakh tonnes so far against a projected requirement of 28.29 lakh tonnes this season,” he said, calling the shortfall “clear evidence of a deepening procurement crisis.”
The BRS leader warned that farmers were being denied the Minimum Support Price (MSP) of Rs 8,110 per quintal, while the open market was paying merely Rs 6,000–Rs 7,000 — a loss of nearly Rs 2,000 per quintal for growers.
KTR demanded immediate Centre intervention and urged the Telangana government to send a delegation to Delhi and launch a robust action plan.
He recalled that in earlier crises the then Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had personally intervened to secure relief for farmers, and asked current authorities to show similar urgency.
The demand comes as cotton growers and traders in several districts await firm procurement measures to salvage incomes before markets collapse further.