Cabinet approves big farm reforms

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 3

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved amendments to the six-and-a-half-decade-old Essential Commodities Act to deregulate food items, including cereals, pulses and onions, a move aimed at transforming the farm sector and raising farmers’ income.

The amendments provide for the regulation of food items only under exceptional circumstances, like national calamities and famine. Also, processors and value chain participants are exempted from the stock limit.

The Cabinet also cleared the Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020, for creating “additional trading opportunities outside the agricultural produce market committee yards and help farmers get remunerative prices”. Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar called the decisions “historic”.

Three key decisions

• Amendment to Essential Commodities Act: Cereals, pulses, onion will be removed from list of essential commodities
• Farming produce ordinance: To promote barrier-free inter-state and intra-state trade
• Farm services ordinance: To empower farmers to engage with wholesalers on a level-playing field

Port Trust Renamed

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to rename Kolkata Port Trust after Jana Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee. “Mookerjee was a minister in the first Central Government after Independence and martyred in Kashmir,” said I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar. TNS