ESSENTIAL GOOD NOW BY NOTIFICATION

The Government has brought about major changes in the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, aimed at having powers to declare any item as an essential commodity for six months, even while pruning down the current list of essential items from 15 to 7. These statutory changes have been brought about through the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill, 2005, which was passed by Rajya Sabha. The categories of items deleted from the current list of essential commodities include iron, steel, and their manufactured products; automobile component and accessories; coal, coke, and other derivatives; cotton and woolen textile; raw and ginned cotton, and cotton seed; paper , newsprint, paperboard and straw board; cattle foods and oil cakes, etc.