So far, they have controlled agricultural produce panels
Congress and NCP have opposed the proposed amendment to Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act, alleging that the BJP government is favouring the corporate sector and traders through the amendment. According to opposition leaders, the amendment is tantamount to a backdoor entry to APMC for BJP and RSS. So far, APMC has been controlled by Congress and NCP.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis called an all party meeting on Thursday to convince them about the amendment. Leader of opposition in the state assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil, senor NCP leader Ajit Pawar, Peasants and Workers Party legislator Jayant Patil, industries minister Subhash Desai, and chairman of Expert Group on Agriculture Market Reforms Dr Ashok Gulati were present. However, the meeting ended with no final conclusion.
The amendment bill was tabled in both houses of the state legislature during the winter session held at Nagpur in December last year when Congress and NCP opposed it.
Minister for cooperative and marketing, Chandrakant Patil, said that the proposed amendment would help farmers get an opportunity to sell their produce directly to traders or the corporate sector. “Opposition has doubt about guarantee of money after selling of agricultural produce at APMC. I want to assure them that there will not be any risk while selling produce in the open market. In fact, they will get a good rate for their produce.”
Dhananjay Munde however said, “The state is not ready to speak about who will take guarantee to get money from the corporate sector if farmers sell their agricultural produce to them. In fact, the BJP government is trying to reduce the importance of APMC and push a policy favoured by traders through the proposed amendment. We will not allow it.”
Meanwhile, the CM said, “These changes are proposed to give liberty to farmers to choose a market for sale of their farm products to get the best price.”
