The vegetable and fruit market in Vallah has challenges related to poor hygiene

The Assembly recently heard a long-standing concern about the lack of growth, unclean conditions, and basic facilities at the sole wholesale fruit and vegetable market in the Vallah region.

The mandi’s seat is represented by MLA Jeevanjot Kaur, who brought up the issue during the Vidhan Sabha’s Budget session. She bemoaned the fact that, throughout the mandi’s twenty years of existence, no permanent shed had been built on its 100 acres.

In the mandi, she said, individuals were building their own private houses. The market committee was unable to get a no-objection certificate (NOC) for the provision of even the most basic infrastructure necessary for the mandi to run smoothly.

The MLA said that the single overhead water reservoir, which provided water to the whole mandi, had been deemed hazardous. Every day, farmers from distant regions sent fresh agricultural products to the mandi. There was only one restroom at the mandi, which could hold four people at once, but the market, where there were hundreds of stores and vendors, had a large number of floating residents.

The vendors of fruits and vegetables insisted that more restrooms be built in the marketplace.

The market committee had a difficult position as it was unable to do any development work since the majority of the mandi land was located under the Army munitions dump’s 1,000-yard buffer on the Amritsar-Verka-Wagah bypass close to Vallah village.

The decrease of the no-activity zone from its current 1,000 yards to 350 yards was proposed by members of the All Fruit and Vegetable Traders Association.

In order to bring up the issue with the Union Ministry of Defence, the MLA has asked the Bhagwant Mann-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) administration to intervene.