Frauds against farmers: Maharashtra mulls setting up independent tribunal

In watch of the climbing instances of farmers having cheated while buying seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, the Maharashtra Agriculture Office is examining the proposal of Maharashtra Assembly speaker, Nana Patole, to established up an independent tribunal, which will hold hearings in cheating instances, and an independent authoritythat will have regulatory powers for the farm sector.

The Indian Structure, less than Report 323B (g), presents powers to the State Legislature to established up tribunals for this kind of disputes, complaints and offences.

Patole is known to take a strong stand on the challenge of farmer welfare. In December 2017, when he was a Lok Sabha MP from Maharashtra, he experienced rebelled in opposition to the BJP and experienced announced his resignation from the Lessen Household as properly as from the get together around the expanding number of farmer suicides in the State.

Patole instructed BusinessLine he has presently written to the Union Agriculture Ministry and achieved the Agriculture Minister on the make a difference. He has also demanded that Central Federal government legal guidelines that govern the sale of seeds, pesticides, fertiliser and agriculture insurance policy be altered, offered the massive-scale frauds in opposition to farmers,

By placing up the tribunal, Maharashtra could be the to start with State to supply this kind of protection to farmers. To remedy disputes among State govt workers and the State govt, the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal, in accordance with similar provisions of the Structure of India, is doing work correctly, he claimed.

Patole claimed instances of farmers having cheated take a whole lot of time in buyer forums and courts. The farmers do not get any productive redress of their grievances in opposition to the agri-input providers. A draft legislation for placing up the tribunal is less than method and views of various Maharashtra Federal government departments, which include Regulation and Judiciary, is currently being sought, Patole claimed.

The Maharashtra Pradesh Kisan Congress (MPKC), the farmer’s arm of the Congress get together, is at the rear of this shift. The standard secretary (Maharashtra), Devanand Pawar, who is spearheading this shift, claimed the State govt ought to use the provision in the Structure, which has typically been neglected by successive governments. An independent authority, which will have regulatory powers for the sector, must also be established up for farmers’ welfare. When a farmer gets cheated due to very poor high-quality farm inputs this kind of as seeds, he has no time to go after the providers. He is worried about his up coming year, Pawar claimed.

BusinessLine has written to the Secretary of State Office of Agriculture, seeking his watch on the make a difference, but obtained no reply from his business office at the time of going to push.