Just when Gujarat’s raw cotton in a year of bumper crop is making waves in the international market for certain superior qualities, the Centre’s imposing an export duty of Rs.2,500 per tonne and ‘lifting ban’ on export of raw cotton amounts to an eyewash and deceit, Government of Gujarat spokespersons said here today.

The spokespersons Health Minister Shri Jay Narayan Vyas and Minister of State for Energy Saurabh Patel said the decision to introduce for the first time a licence on the cash crop with exportable surplus has cost dearly the Gujarat farmers by nearly Rs.2,000-crore in the last one month alone. There were instances of containers being unloaded just before shipments.

Referring to the Central Government’s intention to discourage export smacks of a systematic campaign to single out and bully farmers of only Gujarat. The farmers are estimated to have produced a bumper crop of 100-lakh (10 million) bales of raw cotton during the outgoing season, as their share in India’s total export has gone up to nearly 50 per cent.

The open general licence for exporting cotton seems to have been issued to benefit a handful of cotton yarn manufacturers. It would also open floodgates of corruptions, they said.

On the one hand the Centre advices States to raise production and productivity and on the other when a State attains success the Centre imposes dampeners to discourage higher yields in a particular crop.

Gujarat Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi had also recently written a letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, but to no avail. The Centre’s flip-flop decision is helping Pakistan cotton growers.

The spokespersons warned the Centre to forthwith lift all bans on export of raw cotton before the farmers of Gujarat are compelled to go on an agitation. They would fight out their righteous case, the spokespersons said.