Expressing Punjab’s reservations on the amendments, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on Monday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review the three recently issued Central government ordinances related to the farming sector, in the interest of the farmers, and taking into account the spirit of `cooperative federalism’ which the letter has always strongly championed.

Underlining the need for the Centre and States to work together to secure the collective good of the people of the country, who reside in the States, the CM has, in a letter to Modi, sought a reconsideration of the three ordinances – for permitting trade in agricultural produce outside the physical boundaries of the set-up of the agricultural market under Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, easing of easing restrictions under the Essential Commodities Act, and facilitating contract farming.

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All three should be revisited keeping in view the concerns and the interests of the farmers, said Amarinder, seeking protection of the farmers’ interests at all times.

Amarinder said Agriculture is a subject entrusted to States by the makers of the Indian Constitution and features at entry 14 on the State List.
Referring to the specific ordinances, the CM said the changes in the Agriculture Produce Marketing System as per the Ordinance, had led to widespread apprehension that the Union government was planning to withdraw from the assured procurement of food grains.

He said that there was also another apprehension that the proposed barrier-free nation-wide markets for farmers would really come to mean a nation-wide market for traders, possibly to the detriment of the already debt-ridden and beleaguered farmers of the State.

Drawing the Prime Minister’s attention to ‘The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020’, Amarinder said that it permits new marketing channels outside the APMC domain and has, thus, far-reaching implications for the States, particularly Punjab.

On the easing of regulation of food-grains under the Essential Commodities Act, Amarinder said it further allows the exporters, processors or traders to hold large stocks of farm produce without limits, except in certain grave situations of war, natural calamity, famine, and extra-ordinary price rise.

The amendment would allow the private players to buy the produce in harvest season, when prices are generally lower, and release it later when prices firm up.