MUMBAI: The legislative assembly on Wednesday passed a bill rolling back

rights of

in agricultural produce marketing committees (

).

The previous BJP-Shiv Sena regime had amended the APMC Act to give farmers the right to elect market committees. Officials say this was a BJP move to wrestle control of the APMCs from NCP and Congress.

The

Marketing (Development and Regulation, Second Amendment) Bill, 2020, was cleared by the assembly on Wednesday amidst protests and sloganerring from the opposition.

Now, voting rights in APMCs will be restricted to gram panchayat, cooperative society and agriculture credit society members. The government said allowing farmers to vote in APMCs led to higher expenditure and made the process cumbersome.