Venu Srinivasan, the newly appointed CII president will meet West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, today to discuss issues related to allowing contract farming in a state that is opposed to such a practice now.
The Left Front government in West Bengal does not allow contract farming by multinationals in the state.
“We are keen to work with West Bengal to promote its image among other states and also bring back the manufacturing industry in the state. We will also advice the chief minister to allow private sector investments in agriculture”, Srinivsasan said addressing the press here.
Wherever contract farming has been allowed, be it in the case of Pepsi in Punjab or the ITC e-chaupal network in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, it has proved to be beneficial to farmers, said CII officials. “All states should adopt the Model Agricultural Marketing Produce Committee(APMC) Act”, said Kurush Grant, deputy chairman of the CII eastern region.
This apart the CII is also mooting for state governments going in for creating transparent land banks. “State governments acquiring land transparently and giving it to industry is very critical. Various states follow different models to do this, and we want that state governments go in for creating transparent land banks as it is not possible for industry to acquire large tracts of land”, Srinivasan said.
CII has created a task force for coming up with recommendations in this regard. “The report will be ready by July this year and will be submitted to the new government that comes into power”, he added.