By IANS,
Kolkata : The West Bengal government is preparing a draft to amend legislation regarding agricultural marketing but won’t follow the centre’s advice on adopting contract farming, a minister said Monday.
Agricultural Marketing Minister Arup Roy said his department was readying to amend the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act in line with a ‘Model Act’ of the central government.
“The draft will be sent to the law department and finally to the chief minister (Mamata Banerjee) for her approval,” Roy told IANS.
He said the central government had been asking state governments to amend the APMC Act for agricultural reforms and sent a model act.
“We are not adopting everything which is present in the model act… and we will certainly not adopt the provision of contract farming as we are skeptical about it,” Roy said.
The minister said the state was not receiving grants to the tune of Rs.500 crore as it so far has not amended the act. Some states have already brought in the amendments.
He said the Mamata Banerjee-led government was keen on private-public partnership for development of ‘mandis’ and cold chains in the state, but it would not allow private players to set up mandis.
“We will ensure that all the interests of the agriculturists are secured,” he added.