APMC (Amendment) Bill adopted amidst Cong. walkout

The Legislative Council on Wednesday adopted the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which seeks to permit farmers to sell their produce outside the APMC, amidst walkout by the Opposition Congress members.

Although Janata Dal (S) members too opposed the Bill and sought a division of votes, chairman K. Pratapchandra Shetty did not allow it. This came a day after the Council adopted the controversial land reforms Bill amidst protests. The APMC Bill too has been widely opposed by farmers.

While Cooperation Minister S.T. Somashekhar maintained that the Bill was brought to “help farmers” by relieving them from the clutches of middlemen, Leader of Opposition in the Council S.R Patil described it as “anti-farmer” and expressed concern that it would sound the death knell for farmers. He alleged that the APMC amendment was being pushed by the Centre to benefit multi-national companies.

Arguing that the Centre did not have powers under the Constitution to intervene with respect to APMCs that came under the State list, he urged the State government to desist from ‘succumbing’ to the Centre’s pressure.

Congress members P.R. Ramesh and B.K. Hariprasad pointed out that the provisions under the amendments will prevent the government from procuring grains from farmers for public distribution. “This will in turn deprive the poor of PDS grains,” they said.

While Mr. Hariprasad termed the Bill as “draconian” and demanded that it be referred to a joint select committee for further deliberations, Mr. Ramesh alleged that now farmers would be at the mercy of private companies.

“Despite objections from the Opposition parties, the government had promulgated an Ordinance in May that aimed at amending the laws to curtail the powers of the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMC). The Ordinance has diluted the APMC laws and affected farmers’ interests. The amendments will only help big private companies as it will clip the powers of the APMCs,” Mr. Ramesh charged. JD(S) member Marithibbe Gowda alleged that the Centre was under pressure from multi-national companies and corporates to take up such an amendment. “The Central government is akin to British government,” he charged.

Referring to the concept of MSP, he wanted to know if such measures to protect farmers’ interest would continue in the new system. However, Mr. Somashekhar said the State government is committed to the welfare of farmers. Assuring members that the government would not allow any “injustice” to farmers, he said the MSP system would continue.

“After the Ordinance was promulgated, we did not receive a single complaint from farmers. The amendment was necessary because farmers and traders were being harassed by traffic police and vigilance department officials. They have paid a penalty of nearly ₹25 crore so far. Our aim is to stop this. The amendment will enable anyone with a PAN card to do business with farmers,” he said. Not satisfied with his reply, the Congress members staged a walkout.

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