German wholesale major Metro Cash & Carry’s application for a licence to buy and sell agricultural produce from regulated markets, which has been pending before the West Bengal government for months, is unlikely to be cleared until the new central model of the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (Development & Regulation) Act of 2007 comes into effect in the state.

West Bengal, along with Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, is among the handful of major states where the reforms have not been completed.

Agriculture marketing minister Mortaja Hossain said his department sent the draft of the amended Act to Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee last Monday.

According to a senior official in his department, it will take time for the amendments to be passed into law by the Assembly unless the chief minister and the cabinet opt for an ordinance.

“It all depends on what kind of opposition the chief minister faces from his alliances like RSP and CPI. It should take not less than 6-8 months before the act is passed in the assembly unless Bhattacharjee with the help of his party decides to have an ordinance,” the official said.

While the Chief Minister welcomed Metro when the German company first came to the state in 2006, the Forward Bloc, which controls the agriculture marketing department has been opposing the wholesaler.

The department has finally adopted the central model, with riders. But the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the CPI, two other Left Front partners, are also on the fringes of the opposition.

The government sources said the chief minister’s office today has for a copy of the Central model Act.

“Our understanding is that the government is trying to have the model act in place at the earliest,” one of the officers said.

The sources said the Forward Bloc wants cooperative farming instead of contract farming, and a public-private participation in the sourcing chain, against the purely private chain that is operated by Metro and others like it elsewhere.

Naren Chatterjee, the Bloc legislator who is also the chairman of the state marketing board, said Metro would not be allowed to function unless the new Act is passed.

“Though the existing law permits wholesale license for Metro, we would not like to give it. Let the existing Act be first amended then based on that we will give the license,” Chatterjee.

Manoj Bhattacharya, central secretariat member of the RSP, said his party has not seen the draft of the amended Act but they have serious differences with the model APMC Act of the centre.

“We are not ready any big company whether wholesale or retail to source directly from the farmers,” said Bhattacharya