“Model APMC Act 2003 was introduced by Vajpayee govt. However, many state governments were reluctant to implement it at that point in time,” Pawar’s Party said in clarification.
After NCP chief Sharad Pawar came in support of farmers’ protest against the contentious Agri reforms, government sources on Sunday said that as the agriculture minister in the UPA’s government, he had asked chief ministers to amend the APMC Act in their states to allow the private sector to play an important role in the field, Hindustan Times reported.
The sources, sharing the content of some letters he had written to various chief ministers, claimed that the BJP-led NDA government has made the same set of changes in the Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act as pushed by Pawar when he was the union minister.
Pawar in a 2010 letter to the then Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, according to sources, said that the agriculture sector needs well-functioning markets to drive growth, employment and economic prosperity in rural area of the country.
“This requires huge investments in marketing infrastructure including cold-chain. And for this, private sector participation is essential, for which an appropriate regulatory and policy environment needs to be in place,” his letter read, calling for changes in the APMC act.
Sharad Pawar, in a letter on similar lines to the then Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, had underlined the need for investments in post-harvest and marketing infrastructure from the farm gate to the consumer and said: “private sector needs to play an important role in this regard”.
Pawar was union agriculture, consumer affairs, food and public distribution minister in the then Manmohan Singh-led UPA government.
The NCP supremo, earlier on Sunday, had asked the Centre to take serious cognisance of the ongoing farmers’ protest and said if the deadlock continues, the agitation will not be limited to Delhi and people from across the country will stand by the protesting farmers.
The NCP on Monday issues clarification over the controversy on Pawar’s letter.
“Model APMC Act 2003 was introduced by Vajpayee govt. However, many state governments were reluctant to implement it at that point in time,” Pawar’s Party said in clarification.
As agriculture minister, Pawar tried to form a broader consensus among State Agriculture Marketing Boards by inviting suggestions for implementation of the Act, NCP added.
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