Congress, NCP again oppose changes to APMC Act

Reiterate farmers should be allowed to exercise their right to sell their produce to the agricultural market

Congress and NCP have again raised objection to the Maharashtra government's proposed amendments to the Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee Act.

The Maharashtra government had tabled an Amendment Bill in both Houses of the state Legislature in the Winter session that was held at Nagpur in December last year.

The Opposition parties, Congress and NCP, had opposed the Bill then stating that farmers should be allowed to exercise their right to sell their produce to the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC).

The state Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had last week called an all-party meeting to convince the Opposition on the proposed amendments.

The Opposition parties contended that the amendments favour traders and the corporate sector, and alleged that the government wants to give a "backdoor entry to the BJP and RSS workers in APMC", that is currently controlled by the Congress and NCP.

State PWD Minister Chandrakant Patil said the proposed amendments would keep the rights of farmers intact and the farmers would get an opportunity to directly sell their produce to any trader or the corporate sector.

"Opposition has doubts over payment of money to the farmers once they sell off their agriculture produce. I want to assure them, there will not be any risk while selling their goods in the open market. On the contrary, they will get a good rate for their produce," he said.