Row between farm, textiles ministries on cotton Bill intensifies

Agriculture ministry says it would oppose provisions of the Bill tooth and nail

The tussle between the ministries of textiles and agriculture over the draft Cotton Trade (Development and Regulation) Bill 2012 has intensified, with the agriculture ministry boycotting a recent meeting called by its textiles counterpart to discuss issues related to the proposed legislation.

The draft Bill circulated by the textiles ministry seeks to make it mandatory for all cotton ginning and pressing units, along with those engaged in the trade and manufacture of cotton yarn, to be registered with the Textile Commissioner within three months of the enactment of the proposed law. Failure to do so would attract a fine of Rs 10,000 a day or a jail term of up to two years.

The textiles ministry said as there was no statutory framework for collecting statistical data on pressed cotton bales from ginning and pressing factories and those on cotton yarn production from textile mills, it had become difficult for the Cotton Advisory Board to draw a cotton balance sheet, which, among other things, assessed the production and consumption of the raw cotton in the country.

Agriculture ministry officials, however, said they would oppose the provisions of the Bill “tooth and nail”, as these would lead to bureaucratisation of cotton trade and bring back ‘Licence Raj’ into the country.

“We have sent our negative comments on the draft Bill after it was circulated. Following this, a meeting was called, which we decided not to attend,” said an agriculture ministry official. He added the agriculture ministry would oppose the Bill if it was brought before the Cabinet. “We can’t take a retrograde step and bring back the Cotton Control Order of 1986 under some garb,” the official said.

He said the ministry would prefer to base its cotton production estimates on the crop-cutting method, not the bale press method proposed by the textiles ministry in the Bill.

The draft Bill also proposed to have permanent bale identification systems installed at ginning and pressing industries. All such industries would be given fresh ‘press mark numbers’. The draft Bill also proposed no cotton bale should be processed by any pressing factory until a press mark number was allotted by the Textile Commissioner. Removal of unmarked bales from the press house would attract a penalty of Rs 5,000 per bale per day, the draft Bill stated.

“All these steps are not in the interest of cotton traders or farmers, and the agriculture ministry would do everything possible to stop it from becoming a law,” the official said.

The two ministries had locked horns earlier as well and the dispute had come to the fore in March, when the government had abruptly banned the export of the cotton, saying exports were hurting domestic consumers. However, it had lifted the ban two months later, following protests by farmers and traders. The agriculture ministry had then blamed the textiles ministry for not caring about the interests of farmers.