Shivraj Singh Chauhan earns accolades for amending Mandi Act amid corona crisis

Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s initiative amending the Mandi Act and allowing farmers to sell their produce from their homes and establishing private mandis across the state has been appreciated across spectrum of people.

“Thumbs up for the reform which enable famers to capture more value. This is the kind of ‘fast forward’ of reforms we need or we will be letting this crisis go to waste! The centre had introduced the Model Mandi Act in 2017 but states had lagged behind in adoption.” This tweet comes from none another than renowned businessman and chairman of Mahindra Group, Anand Mahindra- who has following of 7.7 million on social media platform Twitter.

Chief Executive Officer of Niti Aayog, Amitabh Kant too applauded the step taken by CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Appreciating Chouhan he tweeted, “Extremely progressive move! Madhya Pradesh amends Mandi Act, farmers can sell produce from home.”

Accolades came from all quarters including Mohandas Pai, co-founder of philanthropist organisation Akshay Patra. He tweeted, “Madhya Pradesh amends Mandi Act, Farmers can sell produce from home. A great decision, need this across country!”

Shivraj government had recently announced several amendments in the Mandi Act with a view to provide the farmers with the maximum value for their produce. They can now sell their produce directly to private traders from their home without going to mandi.

Obviously, they still have the option to go to mandi and sell the produce at the minimum support price. The state government has also introduced ‘Sauda Patrak’ system through which traders can purchase produce from farmers from their homes.

The traders will have to take a license for this which will be accepted across the state enabling the trader to buy from anywhere across the state.