T.N. Assembly | Bill adopted to make Mayiladuthurai district part of protected agricultural zone

TN Assembly adopts Bill to make Mayiladuthurai district a Protected Agricultural Zone. Bill also seeks to include Ministers and Secretaries of Water Resources and Food & Civil Supplies as members of TN Protected Agricultural Zone Development Authority. Legislators urge State govt to include Cuddalore and Srimushnam taluk in the zone. TN Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act, 1987 amended to provide for online trade platform for agricultural produce.

The Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on Wednesday adopted a Bill to include the newly-formed Mayiladuthurai district as a protected agricultural zone. It also included ‘animal husbandry and inland fishery’ within the ambit of the term ‘agriculture’.

The Bill, tabled by Minister for Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare M.R.K. Panneerselvam, also sought to include the Minister for Water Resources, Minister for Food and Civil Supplies and the Secretaries of these Departments as members of the Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Zone Development Authority.

When the Bill was taken up was consideration in the House, legislator T. Velmurugan (Panruti) urged the State government to consider including the whole of Cuddalore district in the zone. Kattumannarkoil MLA M. Sinthanai Selvan urged the inclusion of the Srimushnam taluk in the zone too, as it was left out since the bifurcation of Kattumannarkoil taluk.

The State government had enacted the Tamil Nadu Protected Agricultural Zone Development Act, 2020 to convert Thanjavur, Nagapattinam, and Tiruvarur districts and a few blocks in Pudukottai and Cuddalore districts into a Protected Agricultural Zone.

Another Bill adopted by the House on Wednesday sought to amend the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation) Act, 1987, to provide for an online trade platform for the conducting of any trading in any agricultural produce.