Saurashtra ginners likely to end fortnight-long stir

Ginning mill owners in Saurashtra region who have been on an indefinite strike to protest against ban on cotton export are all set to call off their stir from tomorrow.

The Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) had imposed ban on export of cotton that led to protests from the ginners. The ban was later withdrawn with DGFT declaring that all the exports registered with it till March 5 would be permitted.

However, the ginners in Saurashtra region did not call off their strike protesting against certain clauses in the notification.

The notification had said that the Centre would not give any new registration certificates for export of cotton though it would allow export deals registered till March 5.

DGFT also said that it would investigate the export of the commodity earlier, incorporating a clause that the registration allowed earlier, would be re-investigated with no time-frame, that irked the ginners.

"The union government has started procedure for revalidation of registration certificates given to cotton exporters and the ginners in Saurashtra region are going to start their mills from tomorrow" a ginning mill owner said.