‘Will pave way for artificial shortages and affect food security’
The CPI(M) has asked the Centre to rescind the three ordinances approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday regarding agriculture. A statement by the Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) said the proposed amendments to the Essential Commodities Act removes all regulations on the pricing and availability of key agricultural commodities essential for the country’s food security.
It added that such proposals pave the way for artificial shortages due to speculation by middlemen and traders and adversely affect the country’s food security. “Further, these amendments, by removing all restrictions and providing ‘barrier free inter-state and intra-state’ sale of agricultural produce pave the way for contract farming by promoting trade and commerce outside the premises or markets covered under the Agricultural Produce Market Committees (mandis). Licences for electronic trading will pave the way for speculative forward trading in all agricultural commodities. These open the way for the entry of big multinational agri-businesses and domestic corporates to freely access India’s agricultural produce and markets,” the statement added.
Affect support net
Such measures will lead to the abandonment of ensuring procurement at a reasonable minimum support price, the Polit Bureau claimed. “The net gainer of all these amendments would be the middlemen, traders and financial intermediaries who will squeeze both the producer, the farmer, and the consumer. This is a recipe for the total destruction of whatever little of the public distribution system that is left,” the party said.
CPI (M) said the aggressive pursuit of neo-liberal reforms by the Modi government is threatening to bring back the days of ruthless exploitation under the British rule for the Indian farmers. “The due process of scrutiny by the parliamentary standing committee on agriculture must be done before these are enacted as laws. Importantly, Agriculture is a state subject under the Indian Constitution. The Union Cabinet has approved these ordinances without consulting the elected State governments. This is a gross violation of our Constitution. Even if the parliament considers and legislates on it, this must be subject to the approval of the State legislatures and cannot be unilaterally imposed by the Centre,” the statement added.
Thank you for being a loyal user of Portfolio.
Portfolio will be a paid section hereon.
Please Subscribe to get access to one of our early bird packs.
Or click on Free Trial to get 14 days free trial.
What You'll Get
-
Web + Mobile
Access exclusive content of the Hindu Businessline across desktops, tablet and mobile device.
-
Exclusive Portfolio and Investment Advice, Banking, Lifestyle and Specials
Get diverse set of perspectives from our trusted experts on Portfolio, Banking, Economy, Environment and others.
-
Ad free experience
Experience cleaner site with zero ads and faster load times.
-
Personalised dashboard
Customize your preference and get a personalized recommendation of stories based on your interest.
Published on
June 04, 2020
A letter from the Editor
Dear Readers,
The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.
Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.
In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.
We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.
But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.
I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.
A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!
Support Quality Journalism