Raising farm...

The consumer affairs ministry recently sought inputs from other ministries and states on rationalising the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, allowing competitive rates to farmers for their produce and aiming to boost investments in the agricultural sector.

“In mid-december, a committee also took a view that penal provisions of ECA that are against the interest of farmers should be dispensed with. But it is likely that the existing regulation will continue to be effective on food items supplied through PDS [public distribution services],” the first person said. The inter-departmental committee is also represented by officials of states, he added.

Ajay Vir Jakhar, chairman, Bharat Krishak Samaj, said farmers have been demanding the repeal of the penal provisions of ECA for a long time. “The Act allowed officials and politicians to manipulate commodity markets and, generally, in most cases, whenever the government intervened, it destroyed livelihoods.”

In a report, “Raising Agricultural Productivity and Making

Farming Remunerative for Farmers”, NITI Aayog said there is “a need to have a relook at some of the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act which discourage large scale private investments in agricultural markets, without diluting its basic premise of ensuring supplies of essential commodities to public and preventing exploitation by unscrupulous traders”.

The government has been actively working in this direction since June 2019 as the Fifth Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog, held under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, emphasised on the need for transforming agriculture through structural reforms with special emphasis on the Essential Commodities Act and the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act, the first person added.

In the commodities market, the Essential Commodities Act is mainly used to target black-marketers, who may hoard commodities. It is also used to rein in prices of items deemed essential under the Act by forcing traders to release stocks.

Analysts say that if traders cannot buy or hold sufficient quantities of grains for certain profit margins, they will not buy out surpluses from farmers. Thus, the restrictive clauses, particularly the penal provisions of the law, become one of the key reasons for tardy growth of farmers’ income.

A committee of secretaries, tasked with recommending measures for the rural sector, has also advocated a review of the essential commodities law, a second person said.

A review meeting held recently recommended that the powers of preventive detention under the Act may be abolished. If any state sees the need for the provision of preventive detention, then it may do so with a state-specific amendment, according to the proposals reviewed by HT.

Additionally, the review meeting proposed doing away with the seizure of vehicles and other movable and immovable property.

The government believes there should be an omnibus clause to make reporting of stocks, sale and purchase voluntary.

The consumer affairs ministry has sought states’ suggestions on revising criminal provisions in the Act to make it “more attuned to government’s policy regarding ease of doing business”, the second person said.

Although, the objective of the Essential Commodities Act is to ensure adequate availability of essential commodities to general public at fair prices, this should not be at the expense of farmers, this person added.

Experts said doing away with the Act is a progressive move that will facilitate a symbiotic relationship between the farmer and the industry. “Now we can hope for industry investment in storage infrastructure and expect higher commodity trade volumes -- leading to more stable prices and higher price realisation for farmers,” Jakhar said.

RS Mani of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University said, “Many provisions of the Essential Commodities Act have outlived their utility. Changes in the Act will allow farmers to face the markets more freely. That will be a big agricultural reform.”

The law came in handy during the 1980s when hoarding, or the unscrupulous trade practice of holding on to food stocks to artificially raise prices, used to be rampant. The law is still used to crack down on inflationary spells in food items, mainly by disallowing wholesalers and retailers from storing food items beyond stipulated quantities. required and Prime Minister [Imran] Khan and army chief [Gen Qamar] Bajwa have made very clear commitments (which) can be seen on public record,” Bayley said.

Most of this progress has been in terms of legislation on counterterrorism financing and remittances, and detentions and arrests, and the FATF is scrutinising evidence provided by Pakistan. Bayley cautioned that “all options are on the table” if Pakistan fails to deliver on its commitments to the FATF and doesn’t “keep moving in a sustainable, significant and non-reversible direction”.

During a regular news briefing, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar referred to the move by Pakistan and China to “misuse the platform of UN Security Council” and said: “The overwhelming majority of the UNSC were of the view that the UNSC was not the right forum for such issues and this should be discussed bilaterally between India and Pakistan.”

The informal closed-door meeting of the Security Council ended without outcome, and this “highlighted that Pakistan’s desperate measures to peddle baseless allegations and presenting an alarming scenario lacked any credibility”, Kumar said.

He said, “We sincerely hope the message has gone out loud and clear to Pakistan that, if at all, there is any matter between India and Pakistan that needs to be discussed, it should be discussed bilaterally.” Pakistan could avoid “global embarrassment” by refraining from such acts in future, he added.

Kumar also said China “should seriously reflect on this global consensus, draw the proper lessons and refrain from taking such action in the future”.

India’s concerns on issues such as Kashmir have been “discussed at high level meetings, taken up at different levels” with China and New Delhi’s perspective was well known to Beijing, he said.

People familiar with developments pointed to external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s remarks at the Raisina Dialogue on Wednesday about the need for India and China to find equilibrium and understanding on issues affecting their relations, and said this reflected New Delhi’s desire to improve ties with Beijing.

“The minister said the two sides must get along, but China should realise they cannot go on raising such issues on behalf of Pakistan,” said a person who declined to be identified. the entire plan and hamper their business as well.”

Shiv Sena first mooted the concept in 2013, and has been following up on it since, with Thackeray pushing for it. In January 2018, the state government had issued a notification, amending the Shops and Establishments (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Services) Act to allow shops, malls, restaurants that do not serve alcohol to operate all night long. However, the police department raised security concerns for Mumbai, and the issue was sent to the Home Ministry for approval.

Gurbaxish Singh, President of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), said, “We thank the tourism minister and his initiative to make Mumbai a successful tourist hub. We have also been suggested in the meeting to put stickers of ‘We are now 24x7’. Some kind of planning will have to be done to prepare the staff, security and other such elements, which will take time.”