By IANS,
New Delhi : Just two days after the commerce ministry banned cotton exports, citing low output and increased domestic demands, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday ordered a review of the decision on request from his party colleagues.
The prime minister has asked a Group of Ministers to review the decision urgently.
“A delegation of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee along with in-charge General Secretaries, of Gujarat and Maharashtra met the prime minister today with a request for immediate removal of ban on export of cotton,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
“The prime minister has given directions that a Group of Ministers should review this decision urgently on 9th March, 2012,” it said, without naming the ministers who will be in the group.
The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) issued a notification March 5 to put a ban on cotton exports with immediate effect.
Leaders from Gujarat and Maharashtra, the two leading cotton producing states, have reacted sharply on the exports ban decision, demanding its immediate removal.
In a letter to the prime minister, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi said the export ban would prove disastrous for the farmers.
Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar had also criticised the move and demanded the prime minister’s intervention.