Maha govt approves the establishment of a nationally designated market

Mumbai, July 29 (IANS) The Maharashtra Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, on Tuesday approved the establishment of a nationally designated market by amending the Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 1963.

This is to facilitate the effective implementation of the e-NAM scheme to ensure fair and reasonable prices for agricultural produce to the farmers of the state.

The Central and State Governments are implementing the e-NAM scheme in 133 Agricultural Produce Market Committees in the state to reduce the obstacles in the trade of agricultural produce in the Agricultural Produce Market Committee.

Online methods are being implemented for the trade of agricultural produce. But as there is still no provision of "Single Unified License" under e-NAM in the state, inter-market and inter-state trade have not been able to start, said the government release.

The Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare of the Central government has published the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Operation and Facilities) Act, 2017 (Model Act).

Under this, a bill was introduced in the winter session of 2018 to amend the Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 1963 of the state.

A cabinet sub-committee was formed to amend the provisions of the bill. This sub-committee has recommended amendments.

Accordingly, as per the provisions of the Central Model Act, provision will be made to declare the large market committees in the state, which receive agricultural produce from at least 2 other states, as Nationally Notified Market Committees.

After declaring such market committees as nationally designated market committees, the government will have direct control over these market committees, and the decision-making process and marketing process will be easy and fast.

In addition, it has been recommended to include provisions related to "Single Unified License" as per the said Model Act 2017 of the Central Government.

“It has also been recommended to create a cadre of secretaries of Agricultural Produce Market Committees. So that the secretary will come under the direct control of this office and act as a link between the government and the market committee, and also to control the influence on the agricultural produce market committees. For this, the secretary will be entrusted with the work of supervision. The salary of the said secretary will be paid from the amount collected from the supervision fee. For this, an amendment will also be made in the act so that the amount of supervision fee collected by the agricultural produce market committees should be handed over to the marketing department instead of the government,” said the government release.

The cabinet also approved the establishment of a supervision committee at the local level for the effective implementation of the amendments to this act.

--IANS

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