K'taka Assembly passes APMC Amendment Bill to regulate e-commerce companies
Bengaluru, Mar 10 (PTI): The Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) Bill was passed by the Karnataka Assembly on Monday.
State Agricultural Marketing Minister Shivanand Patil who presented the bill in the state Assembly said that earlier the government was regulating only the APMC yards but once the bill becomes a law, those doing business on the e-platform will have to operate within its framework.
“For example, D Mart, Big Basket, Amazon and Udaan come in our e-commerce platform. They are doing business evading our legal provisions. We are bringing this law to regulate them from doing business without paying cess,” Patil told the House.
He also said that in the previous law, there was just the reference to ‘trader’ but now the government has incorporated ‘warehouse service providers’ in the bill.
“We have also defined the duties of ‘warehouse service providers’. Along with that, we have given power to regulate them to the APMC Director. There is also a provision to go for appeal against the director in the appellate authority,” Patil explained.
The Minister said recently Udaan had paid a fine of Rs 25 lakh for evading cess.
The bill defines an ‘e-commerce platform’ as an online medium that facilitates licensed traders to sell notified agricultural produce to licensed retail traders within the market area, strictly for consumer sales and not for resale or processing. It also allows farmers to make payments through e-payment methods.
The amendment defines a warehouse service provider as an entity that charges a service fee only from the buyer of the notified agricultural produce, with a cap of five per cent of the sale price for fruits, vegetables, and flowers, and two per cent for all other notified produce.
The warehouse service provider is required to ensure the safe custody and storage of the seller’s goods and provide adequate insurance coverage against fire, theft, floods, rain, or other natural calamities.
Additionally, the provider must arrange fire-fighting facilities, electronic weighing systems, e-trading facilities, assaying services, quality certification, commodity price displays in markets, and other facilities as prescribed by the Director of Agricultural Marketing. The provider must also facilitate pledge loan arrangements.
The government also outlined the regulations for establishing and operating e-commerce platforms for trading notified agricultural produce, stating that such platforms can only function after obtaining the necessary licenses.
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At least 100 dead in Nigeria after air force 'misfire' on market, sources say
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Maiduguri(Nigeria) (AP): A Nigerian Air Force strike targeting jihadi rebels hit a local market in northeastern Nigeria, killing over 100 civilians including children and injuring many others, a rights group and local media reported on Sunday. Officials confirmed a misfire without providing details.
Amnesty International cited survivors as saying that at least 100 people were killed in the airstrike on Saturday on a village in Yobe state, near the border with Borno state, which is the epicentre of the jihadi insurgency that has ravaged the region for over a decade.
“We have their pictures and they include children,” Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International's Nigeria director, told The Associated Press, referring to the casualties.
“We are in touch with people that are there, we spoke with the hospital,” he said. “We spoke with the person in charge of casualties, and we spoke with the victims.”
A worker at the Geidam General hospital, in Yobe, said at least 23 people injured in the incident were receiving treatment. The worker spoke anonymously as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Such misfires are common in Nigeria, where the military often conducts air raids to battle armed groups who control vast forest enclaves. At least 500 civilians have died since 2017 in such misfires, according to an AP tally of reported deaths. Security analysts point to loopholes in intelligence gathering as well as insufficient coordination between ground troops, air assets and stakeholders.
The large, remote market located near the Borno-Yobe border is known to be often used by Boko Haram jihadis to buy food supplies.
Abdulmumin Bulama, a member of a civilian security group working with the Nigerian military in the northeast, said there was intelligence that Boko Haram terrorists had gathered very close to the market and were planning an attack on nearby communities.
“The intel was shared and the Air Force jet acted based on the credible information,” Bulama said.
The Yobe State Government confirmed in a statement that a Nigerian military strike was targeting a stronghold of the Boko Haram jihadi group in the area and that “some people … who went to the Jilli weekly market were affected.”
The Yobe State Emergency Management Agency also acknowledged that an incident had occurred resulting in “casualties affecting some marketers” and said it had dispatched response teams to the area.
Nigeria's military issued a statement saying it conducted a successful strike on a “terrorist enclave and logistics hub” belonging to jihadis in the area, killing scores of them as they rode on motorcycles. It did not provide any detail about a possible misfire, but noted that motorcycles remain prohibited in conflict hot spots and “any such movements in restricted areas are therefore treated with the utmost seriousness.”
Amnesty International has called for an independent investigation into the incident, adding that the military is “fond of” labelling civilian casualties as bandits
Nigeria, which is Africa's most populous country, is battling a complex security crisis, especially in the north, where there is a decade-long insurgency and several armed groups that kidnap for ransom.
Among the most prominent Islamic militant groups are Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, which is affiliated with the Islamic State group and known as Islamic State West Africa Province. There is also the IS-linked Lakurawa group operating in communities in the northwestern part of the country that borders Niger Republic.
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