Summary:
Sameer SinghTribune News ServiceBathinda, December 6Cotton farmers held captive an official of the Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) at a grain market of Goniana Mandi on Friday afternoon. Farmers alleged that the official concerned did not procure cotton on the MSP fixed by the Union Government. Farmers, under the banner of BKU (Ekta Ugrahan), also staged a protest and raised slogans against the government for not procuring cotton from mandis across the district. The protesters rued that more than half of the agricultural produce (cotton) had already been procured this season, but the CCI had not come to various mandis to procure cotton till now. Later, the protest was called-off when the official concerned promised the farmers to conduct procurement twice a week on the MSP..