Mohali: Mandi Board transfers 12 acres land to PUDA, Oppn slams move

Punjab Mandi Board chairman Harchand Singh Barsat confirmed during a meeting on October 2 that 12 acres had been handed over to PUDA

The Punjab Mandi Board has transferred 12 acres of its long-unused ultra-modern fruit and vegetable market in Phase 11, Mohali, to the Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) for auction under the Optimum Utilisation of Vacant Government Lands (OUVGL) Scheme — a move that has drawn sharp criticism from opposition leaders, who have termed it “anti-farmer” and a “betrayal of public trust.”

The project featured five retail areas and 234 vending points intended to help farmers sell their produce directly to consumers. (HT Photo)

The state-of-the-art market, inaugurated on February 8, 2014, by then chief minister Parkash Singh Badal, was developed on 21 acres at a cost of ₹43.34 crore. The project featured five retail areas and 234 vending points intended to help farmers sell their produce directly to consumers. However, the facility largely remained unused for over a decade.

Punjab Mandi Board chairman Harchand Singh Barsat confirmed during a meeting on October 2 that 12 acres had been handed over to PUDA, which is expected to generate more than ₹700 crore through the auction. He added that the board plans to establish a new, larger mandi on about 200 acres of land along a national highway. “Advertisements will be issued in the first week of October to acquire land for the new mandi. Construction will commence once the land is finalised,” Barsat said.

Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa has written to Punjab governor Gulab Chand Kataria seeking his intervention to stop the transfer, alleging that it undermines the integrity of an operational market.

He noted that 15 double-storey shops were allotted in July with trading already underway. “This is not an inter-departmental adjustment—it dismantles an operating market, unsettles small traders, and erodes value to the exchequer by replacing open bidding with administrative pricing,” Bajwa said.

Former health minister Balbir Singh Sidhu denounced the move as “absurd,” while Shiromani Akali Dal leader Harman Preet Singh Prince accused the government of acting out of “financial desperation.”