Shivanad Patil
Credit: DH Photo
Bengaluru: Minister for Textiles, Sugarcane Development and Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Shivanand Patil on Friday said that the government is expecting the APMCs in the state to generate an income of Rs 380 crore to Rs 400 crore this fiscal after their powers were restored.
Addressing a press conference here, Patil claimed that in just four months, the APMCs had earned Rs 133 crore in comparison to Rs 77 crore in the same period last year.
“The income of APMCs has gone up due to the restoration of APMC laws in the state after the Congress came to power in 2023,” he added.
According to the minister, the abolishing of APMC laws in 2019 by the previous BJP government brought the activities in the APMC to grinding halt and resulted in the revenue coming down from Rs 618 crore to Rs 294 crore in the same year.
“Following year 2021-22, the income further slid to Rs 199 crore and in 2022-23 the revenues came down to Rs 194 crore. After we came to power and restored the old APMC laws, revenue of these APMCs went up again to Rs 217 crore,” he said.
The minister said that the state government was taking steps to prevent the farmers from selling their produces in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra by establishing enforcement cells in all four revenue divisions.
Enforcement cells
“Earlier, we had only enforcement cells but now we have established in all four revenue divisions which has resulted in preventing middlemen playing with farmers and forcing them to carry out distress sale. These enforcement cells combined have booked 467 cases and collected Rs 65 lakh fine from such traders,” he said.
He said that government has taken up construction of cold storage units in 15 APMCs at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore.