Four more cotton procurement centres to start in Katol area

Salil Deshmukh, ZP member of NCP, and others interacting with Ravindra Thakare, District Collector, during visit to Khursapar to explore starting cotton procurement centre there.

Staff Reporter :

Four more cotton procurement centres will start soon in Katol constituency area of State Legislative Assembly, thanks to the efforts of Salil Deshmukh, Zilla Parishad (ZP) member of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Of these four, two will start from Monday and one more from Tuesday. Farmers had been pressing for starting cotton procurement centres in Katol and Narkhed tehsils in Nagpur district to expedite cotton procurement. Salil Deshmukh took up the matter with the ministers and the administrative officials.

He spoke to Anil Deshmukh, Home Minister; Balasaheb Patil, Marketing Minister; Anantrao Deshmukh, Chairman of Maharashtra State Co-operative Cotton Growers Marketing Federation. Salil Deshmukh also spoke to Naveen Sona, Managing Director of the Federation; Ravindra Thakare, District Collector of Nagpur; Jayesh Mahajan, General Manager of the Federation; Darshan Meshram, Zonal Officer; Ajay Kadu, District Deputy Registrar; and Milind Shende, District Agriculture Officer. As the graders were not available in adequate numbers, Agriculture Assistants were trained in grading job.

The District Collector issued the orders in this regard. It was the first such experiment in Maharashtra, Salil Deshmukh claimed. Along with the District Collector, Salil Deshmukh visited Khursapar to explore the possibility of starting cotton procurement centre there. According to Deshmukh, the Cotton Federation has approved three new centres namely Prince Ginning and Pressing at Ghubadmet, Nirmal Ujwal Sut Girni at Khursapar, and Daan Ginning Pressing at Ghogra. Deshmukh also met Krupal Tumane, Shiv Sena Member of Parliament from Ramtek, with a request to move Central Government for starting a procurement centre of Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) at ginning and pressing mill at Jalalkheda. Krupal Tumane assured to do the needful. Ghubadmet and Ghogra centres will start from Monday, and Khursapar centre will start from Tuesday, Deshmukh said.