Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha and Hasiru Sene State president Kodihalli Chandrashekar on Wednesday said the proposed amendments to the APMC Act would “sound the death knell for farmers” and declared that farmers’ organisations would not allow such amendments to come through.
At a press conference here, Mr. Chandrashekar pointed out that State governments had been told by the Centre to bring about such amendments through the Ordinance route. He put the onus of convincing the Centre about not forcing the States to go ahead with the amendments on Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa.
“Mr. Yediyurappa says that he is the son of a farmer, and he took oath as Chief Minister by wearing a green shawl. He even keeps saying that his government is pro-farmer in its approach. If his claims are true, let him prevail upon the Centre not to insist on such draconian amendments,” he said.
Pointing out that amendments proposed to the APMC Act had been dropped by the Centre earlier in 2017, he alleged that such changes were being brought in now as it was an “opportune moment” to push such reforms since there was no provision for large- scale protests in the wake of lockdown. “These amendments are more dangerous than COVID-19,” he said.
He alleged that the proposed amendments would not only dilute the authority of the APMC, but also provide for establishment of private markets by big players. “In essence, farmers will be under the mercy of big buyers such as MNCs and big retail chains,” he said.
The proposed amendments would pave the way for private markets that would be devoid of competition among buyers unlike APMCs, he said. It would also result in loss of revenue for the government as the buyers would not be paying the APMC cess as they would be allowed to buy elsewhere, he said.
