The recent agrarian reforms which set agriculture produce free from control of State are used to stage protest in the States of Punjab and Haryana. It is claimed that these are detrimental to the interest of farmers. Here are the farmers:
Farmer are free to sell the agricultural produce as they may choose. It may come as rude shock that until today every farmer was bound to sell it’s agricultural produce at the ‘specified market’ which was a euphemism of a close corporation consisting of politicians rather their proxies. The ‘Management’ of ‘Market’ had the power to dictate the price of the produce.
The Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) was introduced as a reform to uplift the living of farmers but it subjugated them forcing them to make ‘illegal’ sale to outsiders without intervention of APMC. It was a cause of corruption and hardship for farmers. India had a unique institution called ‘Aadhatiya’ which was a mixture of middle man for sale and a money lander to finance agriculture operation. These Aadhatiya which were to be replaced by APMC but they became management of APMC. Three bills will pave the way for the sale of agricultural produce free from traders / Aadhatia/Dalal/Middle man. It will also protects to the farmers from market fluctuations through ‘Contract Farming’.
In most APMCs, buyers have to route all purchases through licenced Aadhatiyas(middlemen). These middlemen charge a commission for their “services” — many times, both from the buyer and seller. The Aadhatiya is also often a moneylender, supplying seeds, fertilizers and pesticides to farmers on credit. They, then, are forced to sell through him and settle their dues in perpetuity. Also, mandi fees ranges from 0.5% to 5% on the value of the sale, while varying across states and commodities. (Here is a good article explaining the issues in detail.)
Here is Congress leader Kapil explaining the the Dalal or Middleman at work:
https://twitter.com/DrJitendraSingh/status/1308007902079102976?
The three Bills named as Agriculture Reforms Bill 2020 Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Price Assurance and Contract Bill for Agricultural Services and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill were enacted as Ordinance on 5 June 2020. Continue reading
Spurious Liquor and death therefrom is seasonal ritual in India. Every year or next, a tragedy or the other happens at one place or another. Causes for such recurrent tragedy are apparent policy failure and it is unlikely to be corrected under present Hindu myopia. Earlier the reason was apathy towards poor. Mere change of reason without change of policy. Bihar is the recent State which has prohibited liquor altogether. Therefore Bihar would be the next State from where next tragedy will occur.
It is a marriage season in India. ‘Season’ because majority of Hindu population fixes marriage dates according to astrology. As it happens good days are always clustered. Some days there are so many marriages that at 9 PM, traffic in New Delhi is like 9 AM i.e. ‘Bumper to bumper’. It was so on 13th of this month and again on 23rd or so. With a population of around twenty million (including suburbs) New Delhi is not only most expensive but can also be most difficult place for wedding parties.
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A toast is a toast is toast, wherever it is called. The empire of toast at present is larger than the empire of Great Britain before it was disbanded. However it appears that the toast, beaming with such vast reign, have entered into a conspiracy of some sort. The exact object of conspiracy is to be discovered but actions speak louder than words. Continue reading
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