Paid parking at Sec 26 mandi to be resumed

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 28

After nearly one and a half years, visitors will have to pay for parking at the Grain and Vegetable Market in Sector 26. The Market Committee is working on a proposal to lease out the parking lot for its proper management.

Also, the sanitation work at the mandi will go into private hands. Earlier, paid parking was introduced in the mandi a few years ago, but discontinued nearly one and a half years ago.

The UT Agriculture Secretary, Hari Kalikkat, today visited the Sector 26 mandi along with Rupesh Kumar, Secretary, State Agricultural Marketing Board; Rajiv Tewari, Joint Secretary, State Agricultural Marketing Board; and Sanyam Garg, Administrator, Market Committee, to take stock of the problems being faced in the mandi.

He, along with the other officers, walked around in the mandi for about an hour. Thereafter, a meeting under the chairmanship of Hari Kalikkat was also convened with the associations of the grain market and vegetable & fruit merchants of Sector 26. The association raised issues pertaining to sanitation, parking space, vendors’ problems, use of the grain auction platform and other problems of the arhtiyas, which were discussed at length at the meeting.

The other issues pertaining to licensees, i.e. commission agents, such as deposit of bank guarantee and proprietor death case transfers were also discussed.

Sanyam Garg said the Market Committee was working on the proposal of leasing out the parking lot of the mandi for a proper parking management and further the sanitation tender has already been at final stage for approval. Thereafter, the sanitation work will be carried out by a private contractor.

The Secretary assured the associations that the issues raised by them would be resolved at the earliest and also asked them to support the Market Committee to make this mandi a model facility at the national level.

He further stressed for cleanliness of the mandi. There is also a need for necessary steps to install garbage bins so that nobody throws waste material here and there in the mandi. The Secretary directed the Market Committee to get the same installed at the earliest.

Regarding the shifting of mandi to Sector 39, the Secretary said the auctioning of SCO sites in the New Mandi will be held at the earliest after finalising the plans.

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