Bhubaneswar: The ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha has welcomed the decision of the Centre to repeal three controversial farm laws saying it always stands for the interest of farmers.
However, it seems that the BJD has maintained two sets of rules on the entire issue.
Since the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014, the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare wanted to usher in reforms in the agriculture marketing sector in the country and had drafted a model law entitled “Agriculture Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2017”.
As agriculture is in the State List of the Constitution, the ministry was pushing all the states, including Odisha, to draft similar Bills for their respective states.
Accordingly, the Odisha government had brought two Ordinances, a copy-paste of the draft Bill shared by the Centre, namely the “Odisha Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation), Ordinance” and the “Odisha Agricultural Produce and Livestock Contract Farming and Services (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance” in May 2020.
The ordinances were issued at least three weeks before the promulgation of the Central Ordinances, revealing that the BJD too was in a hurry to implement the laws.
Despite opposing some sections of the farm laws enacted by the Centre, Odisha government re-promulgated the Agriculture Marketing Ordinance in November, 2020 as the tenure of first Ordinance expired.
However, the government dropped the Ordinance on contract farming in the face of stiff opposition.
On the other hand, it introduced the Odisha Agricultural Produce and Livestock Marketing (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020 in the last Winter Session of the Assembly.
However, as the opposition Congress and farmers opposed the move and the farmers’ stir at national-level turned into a mass movement, the state government did not try to pass it.
The BJD, very cleverly, had raised voices against certain provisions in the new farm laws in both Houses of Parliament. However, it never demanded scrapping the Bills – unlike few other Opposition parties.
The Agricultural Marketing Ordinance (later converted into a Bill) was brought to replace the Odisha Agricultural Produce Market Act, 1956, which was in force in the state since 1957.
As per provisions, both the Ordinances were almost similar to the Central laws. The Odisha Contract Farming Ordinance allowed a farmer to enter into a written agreement for any farm produce, which is same as the Central Acts.
Similarly, the Agri Marketing Bill aimed to ward off fragmentation of the market for agricultural produce and livestock by removing the concept of the notified market areas and ensuring effective enforcement of regulations by the Agricultural Produce and Livestock Market Committee.
It also allowed private investors to directly enter the agricultural market and buy any agricultural product from anywhere in the state.
It had provisions for providing better market linkages to farmers and introduced provisions for single-point levy of market fee across the state and single trading licence statewide to realise cost effective transitions.
Both the contract farming Ordinance and the agricultural marketing Bill lapsed as they were not passed by the state Assembly within the prescribed period.
Speaking about the above Ordinance and Bill, Cooperation Minister Ranendra Pratap Swain said, “Taking advantage of the lockdown, the Centre had promulgated the Ordinances and asked all states to promulgate similar Ordinances. So we did that.
But, now both the Ordinances have lapsed.” The state’s further course of action will depend on the next move of the Centre, he said. Meanwhile, Opposition BJP and Congress criticised the state government for its double standards on this issue.
“They are maintaining one stand in the Parliament and another in the state. It shows BJD’s opportunistic behaviour,” alleged BJP leader Bishnu Sethi.
Congress leader Debasish Patnaik alleged, “As the undisclosed nexus between the state and Centre on this issue was exposed, both BJD and BJP leaders are now indulging in blame game.”
PNN