-Livemint.com Wide disparities in agri-marketing regulations have resulted in fragmented markets across states. The new Farm Bills aim to change this but the jury is still out on whether it will have the intended impact. On 26 September, government procurement of food crops commenced across the country, five days in advance, following the enactment of three contentious Farm Bills. Under the new policy regime, farmers need not sell their produce through designated...

-Hindustan Times The Centre’s attempt to bulldoze the states on agriculture weakens the entire reform process Days after Parliament passed the controversial agriculture bills, several state governments have begun crafting strategies to avoid its implementation. This is a predictable consequence of a process of law-making that undermines India’s federal consensus. Agriculture is a state subject. The passage of national laws, on a state subject, marks a rupture in India’s federal trajectory. There is...

-The Hindu There is a case to argue that the three Acts have poor legal validity, may be unconstitutional and weaken federalism The passage of the three Farm Acts by Parliament has led to a constitutional debate. These Acts are: the Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, 2020; the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020....

-The Telegraph The tearing hurry with which agriculture market reforms have been pushed through, without even consulting farmers, has resulted in huge farm protests in Punjab and Haryana At a time when I see euphoria among mainstream economists over the new set of agricultural reforms, media reports say that the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices has observed that only 12 per cent of India’s paddy cultivators were able to sell their...

-TheWire.in Gram sabhas have this federal power under the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, 1994. Mohali: There are over 13,000 gram sabhas or village councils in Punjab. Following large-scale protests against the Centre’s newly enacted Farm Bills, in what is being called one of the largest democratic and federal processes in the country, almost all councils in Punjab are mobilising to pass resolutions against the Centre’s agri-marketing Acts and register their opposition. As of...