State keeps promise to cotton growers

MUMBAI: The state government has finally honoured a promise it had made to cotton growers in December 2006. It has released Rs 450 crore towards the difference between the cost of production and minimum selling sale price of cotton.

The compensation of Rs 500 crore to make up for the cost differential was announced by the government during the winter session of the legislature in December at Nagpur.

Even the first installment of Rs 50 crore was delayed as the government released it only in March this year. The compensation would be disbursed among a pool of some 35 lakh cotton growers, most of them in Vidarbha, at Rs 1,500 per hectare with a upper land ceiling of two hectares.