Not having been able to amend the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act on the lines of the central Act is depriving retail chains like Reliance Fresh in Jharkhand from having their own marketing yards as well as preventing other such chains from entering the state.
Jharkhand has been trying to adopt the Centre’s model APMC Act, with some changes to suit its needs, since the days of the last National Democratic Alliance-led Arjun Munda government which lasted till October 2006.
Adoption of the Act would pave the way for a unified licence for players as well as entitle them to have their own marketing yards instead of approaching existing bazaar samitis for buying agriculture produce, as Reliance Fresh is doing now.
The current United Progressive Alliance-led Madhu Koda government has, especially after the attack on a Reliance Fresh outlet a couple of months ago in Ranchi, been adopting a cautious approach towards passing the amendments.
The present Jharkhand Assembly could not pass the draft APMC Bill. The Speaker had referred the draft Act to a seven-member select committee of the Assembly for arriving at a consensus on its provisions. But the committee, which was to discuss the draft Bill threadbare on June 9 last, before finalising the amendments, could not transact any business as majority of the members were unavailable. According to state agriculture minister, Nalin Soren, the committee is now slated to meet on July 19.
“We will study the draft Bill closely as it involves three crore people of Jharkhand,” Mr Soren recently told FE, adding, “we don’t want to send any wrong message”.
The Bill would thereafter be taken up by the House once again, and, passed, if thought fit. According to Soren, among the things that needed to be amended in the draft Bill was that it refers to “mandi” which should be replaced by the word “bazaar samiti”.
The Jharkhand APMC draft also suggests a single point, one-time tax of 2% on agricultural produce, instead of the prevailing multiple-level tax of 1% (at each level).
“Absence of the amended APMC act is also coming in the way of farmers not getting the benefit of contract farming,” said Ashok K Sarkar, secretary, state agriculture & sugarcane development department. He, however, added that caution was needed while finalising provisions in this respect as the literacy rate among Jharkhand’s farmers was low.
The same sentiment was echoed by Reliance Fresh’s mentor in the state, Prabhat Sinha, when he told FE, “We must safeguard the interests of the farmers of the state”.
Meanwhile, Reliance Fresh, which has three outlets in Ranchi, is almost ready to enter Jamshedpur and Dhanbad with six and five outlets, respectively, in August.
With 14 states having adopted the model APMC Act so far, it remains to be seen how soon Jharkhand joins the league.