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STATE

HYDERABAD

THE HINDU

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2015

Soaring cotton price brings cheer to ryots

BRIEFLY

Driven by demand, private traders pay heavily in excess of the Minimum Support Price
N. RAHUL

Union Minister for Labour Bandaru Dattatreya and Telangana

Home Minister Nayani Narasimha Reddy interacting with a
patient after laying the stone for six-bed facility at ESIC at
Patancheru in Medak district on Tuesday. -PHOTO: MOHD ARIF

IN ACB NET
SCCL DGM caught accepting bribe from contractor
Singareni quarters repair works.
The DGM had already collected a
bribe of Rs 20,000 from the
contractor and demanded
additional Rs 20,000 for the
clearance of the bill.
The contractor approached
the ACB, who caught the
Singareni official red-handed
while accepting the bribe in his
chambers. He would be produced
before the ACB court on Tuesday.
It is learnt that the Singareni
officials have fixed certain
amount of commission albeit
bribe for the clearance of various
civil works in the region.

KARIMNAGAR: Sleuths of Anti-

Corruption Bureau (ACB) caught

the Singareni Collieries Company
Limited (SCCL) RG-3 deputy
general manager (civil) redhanded for demanding and
accepting a bribe of Rs. 20,000
from a contractor in his
chambers in Ramagundam coal
belt area in Karimnagar district
on Tuesday.
ACB DSP T Sudarshan Goud
said that SCCL DGM (civil) B
Madhusudhan Rao had demanded
a contractor M Mogili a bribe of
Rs. 50,000 for clearance of
pending bill for completion of

WEATHER WATCH (City-wise reading yesterday)

For metros highlighted, readings show max temperature

otton fetched the highest price in

the season for farmers as arrivals
of the produce peaked across 84
procurement centres in Telangana in the last two days. On Monday alone, private traders purchased 49,000 quintals at a
premium while the Cotton Corporation of India which procures
at the minimum support price of
Rs 4,100 if the moisture content is
below 8 per cent picked up 4,000
quintals. The traders coughed up
to Rs 4,500 a quintal but it was Rs
100 more at Khammam market
yard.
Additional Director of Marketing G. Lakshmi Bai said the price
did not go beyond Rs 4,400 a
quintal last year when about 224
lakh quintals of cotton were received. This year, only 204 quintals were
estimated but the
Agriculture DepartBETTER
ment further slashed
DAYS
it by 15 to 20 per cent
to adverse seaSeasons sale due
sonal conditions. In
fact, the cropped area
of cotton in Telangana this year was 16.72
lakh hectares while it was only
16.50 lakh hectares.
The arrivals at market yards so
far this season since the commencement on October 20 was 88
lakh quintals, of which the CCI
procured 30.12 lakh tonnes. Driven by demand, the traders paid
heavily in excess of the MSP. The
produce fetched up to Rs 5,000 a
quintal in 2013-14, Mr. Lakshmi
Bai said. Jammikunta, Warangal,
Khammam, Karimnagar, Peddapally, Adilabad and Bhainsa are
the major markets where the arrivals were high.

Cotton being loaded into a truck in Adilabad on Tuesday. -PHOTO: S. HARPAL SINGH

Traders compete with one another in Karimnagar

K.M. DAYASHANKAR
KARIMNAGAR: The cotton prices
soared to a record high of Rs 4,530
per quintal in the Jammikunta
agricultural market yard in Karimnagar district from Monday.
In an irony of sorts the farmers
were in fact forced to resort to
distress sale in October. Following severe drought conditions the

yield has come down drastically

but the price of cotton per quintal
has increased now.
Against the minimum support
price of Rs. 4,100 per quintal, cotton is now being procured by the
traders for a price ranging between Rs. 4,300 per quintal and
Rs. 4,500 per quintal in various
markets of the district. In Karimnagar marketyard, the cotton is

being procured by the traders at

Rs. 4,460 per quintal.
On Tuesday, around 611 quintals of cotton arrived in the market and the traders competed
with one another to purchase the
crop by paying Rs. 4,300 per quintal to Rs. 4,460 per quintal depending upon the quality of the
cotton crop. The Karimnagar
market committee officials say

Mood upbeat in Enumamula market

GOLLAPUDI SRINIVASA RAO

Delhi | 24.5 C

WARANGAL: The cotton farmers

here are in a upbeat mood as the

price touched a highest of Rs.
4,500 per quintal after many years
at the Enumamula Agricultural
Market in the district. The highest price the cotton commanded
was in 2010-11 when the farmers
got Rs. 6,600 per quintal and
henceforth it was never that remunerative. There were times

Kolkata | 24.9 C

Mumbai | 34.4 C
Hyderabad | 33.6 C

Bengaluru | 27.4 C

Chennai | 30.7 C

when the farmers went on a rampage protesting over the low

price accusing the officials and
traders of collusion.
On Tuesday, the farmers got Rs
4,500 per quintal. Since October
this year, the price hovered
around Rs 3,000 and slowly rose
to Rs 3,800 per quintal. Since December 20, it started soaring
bringing cheer to farmers.
Agriculture market secretary A
Raju said about 10,000 bags of cot-

ton arrived at the market on an average compared to 50,000 to one

lakh bags per day.
Following the inadequate rainfall and unavailability of water,
the productivity had come down
drastically.
Though the extent of cotton
crop was about five lakh acres, the
per acre production had come
down to three to five quintals as
against eight to ten quintals in the
past.

that there was good demand for

the crop due to the low yield in
the State.
In the month of October when
the cotton crop started arriving at
the markets, there were no takers
for the produce and the farmers
were forced to resort to distress
sale at less than Rs. 3,500 per
quintal which was also less than
the MSP of Rs. 4,100 per quintal.

In Nalgonda, Rs. 4, 350 a quintal

STAFF REPORTER
NALGONDA: The private traders
purchased cotton at Rs. 4,350 a
quintal on Tuesday across Nalgonda district. Assistant Director, Marketing, M.A. Kaleem attributed the rise in the price to
increase in demand of cotton
seeds in the international market.
The demand for seed has increased from Rs. 1,500 a quintal
to Rs. 22,000 quintal during the
past couple of days. Following

the development, Mr. Kaleem

said that the traders were purchasing cotton at Rs. 4,350
quintal.
Until a week ago, Mr. Kaleem
said that the traders used to purchase at Rs. 3,900 a quintal while
the Cotton Corporation of India
was purchasing at Rs. 4,100 a
quintal.
Mr. Kaleem said that the CCI
centres have purchased 10 lakh
quintals from 11 counters set up
across the district.

Khammam farmers get Rs. 4, 600 per quintal

Image & Data: India Meteorological Department

P. SRIDHAR

Forecast for Wednesday: No weather forecast warning

Max Min
Agartala
Ahmedabad
Allahabad
Aizawl
Bengaluru
Bhopal
Bhubaneswar
Chandigarh
Chennai
Coimbatore
Dehradun
Gangtok
Goa
Guwahati

25.6
32.8
27.6

27.4
28.8
30.4
23.4
30.7
31.0
25.5
14.6
33.0
25.2

10.6
14.3
12.0

15.4
10.4
13.0
8.1
22.5
20.0
7.2
6.0
21.0
8.8

Max Min
Hubballi
Hyderabad
Imphal
Jaipur
Kohima
Kolkata
Kochi
Kozhikode
Kurnool
Lucknow
Madurai
Mangaluru
Mumbai
Mysuru

31.0
33.6
23.2
28.3

24.9
32.2
36.7
34.4
25.1
30.2
34.7
34.4
27.7

16.0
13.8
4.9
10.0

13.7
24.6
23.0
16.8
9.5
22.2
19.5
14.5
16.3

Max Min
New Delhi
Patna
Port Blair
Pune
Puducherry
Raipur
Ranchi
Shillong
Shimla
Srinagar
Vijayawada
Visakhapatnam
Thiruvananthapuram
Tiruchi

24.5
23.0
31.6
31.4
32.4
30.4
25.2
16.7
17.7
11.8
32.7
30.1
34.2
30.8

10.6
9.6
26.0
9.6
22.2
12.7
9.0
6.1
8.0
-3.7
16.4
19.0
23.8
22.1

KHAMMAM: Cotton has fetched Rs.

4,600 per quintal, the highest
price in the current procurement
season, in the cotton market yard
here on Tuesday.
About 5,600 bags of cotton
(roughly 2,000 quintals of cotton)
arrived in the market yard and
sold at Rs. 4,600 per quintal,
around Rs. 500 higher than the
minimum support price of Rs.
4,100 per quintal, on Tuesday.
With cotton continuing to
command higher price due to the
surge in demand for cottonseeds

Sharp dip in poverty levels

Private traders
purchase 3.14 lakh
quintals of cotton at
the market yard
this season
in some northern States, the cotton arrivals at the local market
yard are expected to shoot up in
the next few days, the market yard
sources said. While the CCI procured little over 1.68 lakh quintals.
private traders have purchased
3.14 lakh quintals of cotton at the
market yard so far this season.

Arrivals are expected to shoot up in the next few days at the cotton market in Khammam. PHOTO: G.N. RAO

V. GEETANATH

60 minority residential
schools next year

HYDERABAD: Telangana has been

SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

successful in sharply reducing poverty levels from a

steep 44.2 per cent in 1993-94
to 8.8 per cent in 2011-12. In
fact, the poverty gap ration
has been declining over the
years, which also means that
the reduction in consumption
levels among the poor and
malnutrition among children
remain a challenge.
On the negative side, half
the population does not have
access to safe drinking water
and sanitation, showed a report by the Centre for Economic and Social Studies
(CESS) on the Status of Millennium Development Goals
(MDG) in Telangana State released by World Bank chief
economist Kaushik Basu and
others at the valedictory of
the 98th annual conference of
the Indian Economic Association here on Tuesday.
It also may take two more
years for Telangana beyond
2015 to achieve 100 per cent
net enrolment rate and even if
it has achieved universalisation of primary education and
gender parity in both primary
and secondary levels, gaps remain among socially disadvantaged groups with rural
areas lagging behind in enrolment in secondary levels.
Despite
significant
achievements made on many
MDG targets, progress has
been uneven across districts
and ethnic groups and the reCM
YK

HYDERABAD: From the next aca-

demic year of 2016 June, there

will be 60 new minority residential schools across Telangana with 30 each for boys
and girls, according to Chief
Minister K. Chandrasekhara
Rao here on Tuesday.
Other than Wakf lands, the
new schools can be constructed on site to be vacated by the
Race Course ground once it is
moved to the outskirts. Similarly, Chanchalguda jail land
could also be utilised as it is
port called for focus on vulnerable groups, and steps to
reduce infant mortality rate.
Also, high incidence of mortality rate of children under
five years has been reported
among SCs/STs.
Telangana may take up to
eight years to reduce maternal mortality, as expected,
taking the current rate of decline. The report indicated
that there is success in institutional deliveries and antenatal care. The State should also
be concentrating on improving forests and biodiversity,
sanitation and slum improvement, the report said.
Other than the obvious
Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy
districts in the top two, Warangal,
Karimnagar
and
Khammam topped the Human Development Indices

(HDI) of having a long and

healthy life, knowledge and
decent standard of living as
enunciated by the UNDP.
HDI value in TS grew at 8.3
per cent per annum between
2004-05 and 2011-12 with Nizamabad and Khammam
scoring 12 per cent and Adilabad, Mahabubnagar, Medak
and Ranga Reddy increasing
to 11 per cent from nine per
cent; interestingly, it was below the State average in Hyderabad, Karimnagar and Warangal A separate study by the
CESS on HDI shows a marked
improvement across all districts but though Khammam
had improved from seven to
five, Nizamabad from 10 to
eight; Nalgonda slipped from
five to seven, Mahabubnagar
from eight to nine and Medak
from nine to 10 in the period.

also going to be shifted to

Cherlapalli, Mr. Rao instructed, a press release from the
CMs Office said.
Each school is to be constructed at a cost of Rs.20
crore on six acre sites and in
places where the concentration of minorities population
is higher.
While funds will be
sourced from the minority
welfare department, the
schools will be run by the
education department with
the medium of instruction being English.

CM wants Pocharam to visit Delhi

for pursuing drought relief
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
HYDERABAD: Chief Minister K.

Chandrasekhar Rao has directed Agriculture Minister

Pocharam Srinivas Reddy to
go to Delhi and pursue release
of drought-relief assistance to
the State by meeting Union
Agriculture Minister Radhamohan Singh.
He requested the Centre to
release the drought assistance
at the earliest so that it could
provide some relief to the
farming community and oth-

er sections that were impacted by the severe drought conditions in the State. He stated
that farmers had suffered
heavy losses as over six per
cent of the States geographical area was under the impact
of drought.
In an official statement, the
Chief Minister said that the
State Government had already sent detailed reports to
the Centre on the impact of
drought and the assistance
needed. Besides, teams sent
by the Centre had visited the

drought-affected areas to assess the situation and they too

had felt the need to come to
the rescue of farming community and other sections suffered by drought conditions.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister decided to take up special programme to make the
State 100 per cent literate. He
stated that literacy among
people was necessary for
transparency in the implementation of welfare and development programmes taken up with huge expenditure.

Focus on redesigning of irrigation projects

B. CHANDRASHEKHAR
HYDERABAD: For the State which
is born out of the cry against
discrimination in utilisation
of river waters and for the
Government that has come
into being with the slogan to
work for providing irrigation
facility to over one-crore acre
land, the year that is going into oblivion has been a mixed
bag with most of its energies
going into the spadework.
The irrigation profile of the
State has not undergone any
major change during the year
except for continuation of
work on several ongoing projects, mostly lift irrigation, as
the better part has been spent

in investigation, study, planning, designing and talks with

neighbouring States to settle
disputes. However,
Mission
Kakatiya, one of
its
flagship
schemes,
has
provided a ray of
hope by wetting
the fields wherever there were
good rains.
Over 2-lakh
acres could be irrigated in Khammam district
this year purely with the help
of minor irrigation tanks restored under Mission Kakatiya, Minister for Irrigation T.
Harish Rao said on the impact

of the scheme.
By taking up the Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)
survey during
September-October, Telangana
became the first
State in the
country to go for
such scientific
study for designing of irrigation
projects. It was
basically taken
up to overcome
disputes with Maharashtra
with regard to Pranahita-Chevella lift irrigation project that
aims to irrigate about 16.4 lakh
acres, the highest extent for
any project conceived so far

for Telangana.
Redesigning and reengineering of projects has become necessary as the projects designed during the
combined Andhra Pradesh
dispensation were mired in
disputes with neighbouring
States, delaying their execution inordinately, Advisor to
Government on Irrigation R.
Vidyasagar Rao said.
A breakthrough appears to
be on the horizon with regard
to dispute related to Pranahita-Chevella following several
rounds of talks and written
communication with Maharashtra including the latest
meeting held on Tuesday
(December 29). Maharashtra

has dropped ample indications of its consent for Tummidihatti barrage provided
there was no submergence in
its territory.
Nevertheless, the issue of
redesigning of projects has invited criticism from the Opposition parties as they wanted the government to
complete the ongoing projects such as Kalwakurthy,
Bheema, Nettempadu, Koilsagar, Srisailam Left Bank Canal
(AMR) first before taking up
the new ones. Over 8 lakh
acres could be given water if
Rs.1,000 crore is spent on the
projects nearing completion,
Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy
of TDP pointed out.
HY-HY