Maharashtra Govt Brings Major APMCs Under Direct Control, Sidelines Local Political Boards

The state cabinet, on Tuesday, cleared the way to bring under its direct control big agriculture produce market yards in the state. The move comes after the Centre suggested that all states should amend their law to establish Markets of National Importance (MNI), the affairs of which will be controlled by their governments.

Local Political Influence Dented

The decision comes as a blow to the local political satraps, who were controlling the markets through the elected director boards that owe allegiance to the opposition parties.

In Maharashtra, the big market yards, such as the Agriculture Produce Market Committee (AMPC) Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Solapur, Latur, have their daily turnover in crores of rupees, which will now be directly controlled by the Department of Marketing in Mantralaya. These yards automatically qualify for the MNI tag, as suggested under the Model Act enacted by the Central government.

As per the Centre’s norms, the market committees with an annual turnover of one lakh metric tonne (MT) of produce, of which 30% comes from two or more states, qualify for the MNI tag. Once declared as MNI, the day-to-day affairs will be monitored by the state as per the guidelines prescribed by the Government of India.

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BJP Eyes Administrative Control Through Ministerial Boards

To be in command, the Maharashtra state marketing department had proposed that minister Jaikumar Rawal would head the state-appointed board for each MNI. The proposal was pending for the last few months as the Mahayuti partners, such as the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), headed by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar and the Shiv Sena, headed by Deputy CM Eknath Shinde, were worried over the BJP’s plan to take control of the prime yards. The market yard in Pune is controlled by the NCP, which may have a secondary role once the BJP’s marketing minister starts looking after its affairs.

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MNI Eligibility Norms Relaxed to Expand State Reach

In a related development, the state cabinet has decided to increase the ambit of political control by tweaking the norm of annual turnover. Now, a market committee with 80,000 MT annual turnover can be declared as the MNI. This will add a few more market yards, which will come under the direct control of the government.

According to sources, each market committee that will be classified as an MNI will have an executive body to run the day-to-day affairs, as the minister cannot look after the daily affairs.