In an important order, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court has asked all cotton farmers to put forth their grievances regarding the lapses on part of the Maharashtra government and other relevant authorities. The HC has also ordered the government to file a detailed affidavit regarding its policy for purchasing cotton from farmers and why it did not buy cotton from these farmers via offline mode.
The HC has also ordered the government to purchase cotton, as much as possible, from the farmers, even offline, before June 12.
A bench of Justices Tanaji Nalawade and Shrikant Kulkarni passed the significant order while taking note of the plight of cotton farmers who are facing losses due to the delay on part of the authorities in purchasing their produce.
The bench said, "This court is allowing farmers to put forth their grievance of any nature in respect to the policy adopted by the government for purchasing cotton. They can also voice their grievance if they have suffered a loss due to this policy. Farmers will have to also produce documents which show that they were compelled to sell cotton to private
traders, as it was not purchased by the government, and thus, suffered losses."
The bench noted that the APMC was issuing tokens to farmers and then they sold the produce to the government authorities. However, there were allegations levelled by farmers that this token system was misused by the traders. "There is an allegation that the traders were purchasing cotton at lower rates than the rates fixed by the government. There is such a possibility. However, there is also another possibility of using the present online process, and virtually preventing farmers from selling cotton to the authorities at the support price," the judges noted.
The bench further said that if such was the case (online procurement), then farmers could have been compelled to sell cotton at lower rates to the traders. It, accordingly, ordered the government to place on record the procedure adopted by the authorities for
purchasing cotton from farmers, the complaints received from farmers, the funds that were made available for purchasing cotton and also the extent of the capacity of each centre created for purchasing cotton from farmers. "We would also like to know why the authorities did not procure cotton by using the offline mode. Let there be a detailed affidavit in this regard and till then the government must procure most of the cotton from farmers," Justice Nalavade said while placing the matter for hearing on June 12.
