Cong govts to cut fruit, veg prices

In an attempt to woo back voters ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, all Congressruled states have taken steps to reduce the prices of fruits and vegetables by de-listing them from the Agriculture Produce Market Committees (APMC) Act.

The move that seeks to benefit both farmers and consumers follows the directive of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi to 12 Congress chief ministers at a meeting in Delhi on December 27 last year. He followed up with a reminder letter to the CMs too.

Rahul had set a deadline of January 15 for implementing the measure that sought to help farmers realise better prices and also give them choice to sell their produce wherever they want besides giving the consumers the benefit of lower prices.

Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Assam, Meghalaya, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana had already removed fruits and vegetables from the APMC act.

The wholesalers, organised retail chains and even smaller vendors would be able to get access to the produce at the farm gate while saving on the APMC agent’s commission.

While Manipur and Kerala did not need to make any changes as they had not implemented the act, Karnataka do so during its next assembly session.

Rahul had also asked the states to invoke the Essential Commodities Act to stop hoarding, black marketing and profiteering.

A significant drop in vegetable and fruits prices in December is expected to continue in the coming months. The retail inflation in December fell to a three-month low on lower vegetable prices. Retail prices rose by 9.87% last month against a revised 11.16% year- on- year in November, the highest increase ever.