A day after agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said he was kept in the dark about the ban on cotton exports, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday directed a group of ministers to ?urgently review? the controversial decision.

Singh?s directive, made public by a statement on his office website, came amid strong protests by leaders of key cotton-producing states cutting across political parties, including Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi, fearing an adverse impact of the ban on farmers? earnings.

A delegation of the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee, along with general secretaries of Gujarat and Maharashtra, met Singh with ?a request for immediate removal of ban on export of cotton?, the Prime Minister’s Office said. Significantly, polls are due within a year in Gujarat, the country?s largest cotton producer. The PMO?s statement is aimed at dispelling any ?communication gap? among ministries concerned after Pawar said such matters should have been discussed in the Cabinet Committee on Prices or the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs before the ban was slapped. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee heads the informal GoM on cotton.

Meanwhile, commerce and textile minister Anand Sharma defended the ban even on Wednesday, adding, however, that he will talk to Pawar ?personally? to sort out the issue. ?We could not countenance a situation where the country, which is a major cotton producer, is forced to import at much higher prices to meet the domestic demand of the industry. That is why a judicious and considered view was taken,? Sharma told reporters in Vietnam, where he is on a two-day visit.

Sharma said he couldn’t contact Pawar as the agriculture minister was traveling abroad. ?We are one government, we all are ministers in the same government,? he said, adding that both the Prime Minister and the finance minister have been apprised of the developments.

Suspecting a cartelisation by some exporters, Sharma said he has ordered a probe into allegations of cornering of licences for large volume of cotton exports by a select few. ?We were informed that there has been cornering of huge quantities (of cotton) by handful of big players who have exported to their own warehouses abroad. It did cause alarm,? he said.

The Directorate General Of Foreign Trade on Monday announced the ban on cotton exports after the registration of export contracts hits a record 12.5 million bales. One bale equals 170 kg.

Government officials had said the move was aimed at keeping supplies steady throughout the year for some consuming industries struggling with a severe fund crunch. Traders have already shipped a record 9.5 million bales so far in the year through September, compared with around eight million bales a year before.

The country is expecting a record harvest of 34 million bales of cotton in 2011-12, up from 33.9 last year. Pawar has taken the view that since plentiful supplies have already dragged down cotton prices significantly this year from record levels in 2010-11, there was no need for any ban as farmers? earnings will further dwindle.

However, textile secretary Kiran Dhingra said on Tuesday that the ban was the ?unanimous view? of the committee of secretaries, which also comprised agriculture secretary PK Basu.

She said the ban was also in step with the policy approved by the informal GoM in April 2010 that the country will maintain a carry-forward stock level of at least five million bales each year and ?only surplus cotton should be exported?.

Exports of 9.5 million bales have brought down carry-over stocks for the next season to just 3.6 million bales even if the consumption by mills is revised downward to 23 million bales from the Cotton Advisory Board’s forecast of 24 million bales in 2011-12, Dhingra said.

If the entire quantity for which registration is done is allowed to be shipped, it will worsen the domestic supply, especially after harvesting is over.