The State government is yet to decide on promulgating an Ordinance to bring reforms to the agricultural produce marketing committees (APMCs) even as the Opposition has dubbed the proposed reforms as “anti-farmer”.
Cooperation Minister S.T. Somashekhar on Tuesday said the government had not decided yet on promulgating the Ordinance, and denied that the State was under pressure to do so. “It has not been decided yet. I have convened a meeting of APMC officials on Wednesday to discuss the issue. At this stage, the Chief Minister’s office is also looking at pros and cons of bringing the Ordinance,” Mr. Somashekhar told The Hindu.
He said as several States have already brought changes based on the Centre’s model Act, and that he had asked for details on those changes to study. His comments on Ordinance came in the light of a letter received by the State government from the Centre which has suggested that the State should consider adopting changes in the current situation to the APMCs based on the model Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing Act that has been circulated by the Centre. Important things proposed in the reforms include removal of restriction on sale of farm produce by allowing sales outside APMC yards.
Mr. Somashekhar, however, insisted that the model Act proposed by the Union government would help farmers. “Already, owing to COVID-19 situation, farmers were allowed to sell outside APMC yards. The new changes will help farmers. The changes are also in line with these experiences,” he said.
The State is expecting a revenue shortfall of ₹600 crore a year if the amendment comes through, sources said.
‘Under pressure’
Meanwhile, Bandeppa Kashempur, Cooperation Minister in the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition government, told The Hindu that the State had been under tremendous pressure from the Centre to bring changes to the APMC Act ever since the model Act was notified. The State government believed that the proposed changes could have negative impact on farmers, he added.
“At least thrice, Union Agriculture Ministry officials had called me to ask why Karnataka was hesitant to implement the reforms. We were very clear that such big reforms required deliberations, and that reforms could not be done in a hurry. Karnataka had conveyed it very clearly to the Centre,” he said. The Centre had been asking us to move the amendments in the Assembly quickly, he added.
He also said that Karnataka had filed objections to the draft that had been circulated among the States, and that senior APMC officials had gone to Delhi to raise these objections in the meeting. “I do not know what kind of pressure is the State government facing now since the BJP is ruling in the State as well as at the Centre.”
