This consultative process is very important… The high-power committee of the NITI Aayog, which included Chief Ministers Amarinder Singh, (then CM) Kamal Nath, Naveen Patnaik, Manohar Lal Khattar and Yogi Adityanath, emphasised the need to accelerate the food processing sector, draw more investment in agriculture… (and) stressed upon amendment in the APMC and Essential Commodities Act. Therefore, there has been almost a bipartisan consensus for close to 20 years liberalise the APMC Act; open trade for farmers; give choices to farmers; and bring in private investment…
In an interview in 2005, then Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar was asked when he saw the APMC Act being abolished. Pawar answered, ‘It will take six months maximum… Until and unless you are ready to amend the market Act and allow the private sector in this area, there will not be any financial support from the government of India to states.’ He went to this extent.
Farmer unions at a press conference at Singhu Border. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)
However, except for Section 3, other key provisions of the law are in for substantial change if the Centre’s proposal is accepted. Two changes through amending Sections 4 and 6 are likely to restore powers of the states – the dilution of the state’s role was a point of contention.
Among the Centre’s proposed amendments is the dilution of Section 4 that expanded the scope of a potential buyer to anyone with a PAN card. The Centre’s concession is now to empower states to make rules on registration of buyers. The proposal gives states a foot in the door in determining who is a buyer. In the current mandi system, commission agents have to get a licence to trade in a mandi.