Creation of Modern Facilities in Market Committee: Scheme to Provide Assistance for Setting Up Modern Facilities in Market Committee

What is the Creation of Modern Facilities in Market Committee scheme?

Creation of Modern Facilities in Market Committee is a scheme of the Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department, Government of Gujarat, published on the department's portal under its Gujarati head Varah. It funds physical infrastructure inside Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs). The regulated market yards where Gujarat's farmers sell grain, cotton, oilseed, vegetables and fruit.

The department explains the rationale in its own scheme note. Gujarat amended the Agricultural Produce Markets Act, 1963 in 2007 to allow contract farming, direct purchase, e-markets, private markets and a common licence. Private companies entered the agricultural marketing space, and competition for the farmer's produce increased. At the same time, output rose steadily on the back of the state's agriculture programmes. A market yard with no shed, no drinking water and no soil testing facility could not hold its own against that competition, and could not give farmers the price discovery they were entitled to.

The scheme's answer is targeted capital assistance. Instead of a general grant, it lists seven specific facilities and puts a rupee value against each group, with a hard ceiling of Rs 50,00,000 per project.

What does the scheme pay for, and how much?

The split between the two groups follows a clear logic. Group 1 items are directly farmer-facing and generate no revenue for the committee. A shed where a farmer can leave produce out of the sun, a platform for auction, a kiosk showing vegetable rates, a demonstration plot for drip irrigation. The state funds these in full for every committee.

Group 2 items have an asset value the committee itself benefits from, so the state shares the cost rather than absorbing it. Here the class of the market committee decides the share. Larger and better-resourced A and B class committees get 25%. Smaller C and D class committees, which are the ones least able to fund a borewell or a soil laboratory from their own cess income, get 50%.

Who is eligible for the modern facilities scheme?

You can apply if:

• You are an Agricultural Produce Market Committee of Gujarat State. The department's eligibility line is exactly that broad: all market committees of Gujarat State are eligible.
• Your committee has prepared development work maps and cost estimates through an engineer on the panel approved by the Director of Agricultural Markets and Rural Finance, Gujarat State, Gandhinagar.
• The proposal is accompanied by the details and undertaking in Annexure-1 prescribed by department circular Varah-12-2018-2191-2 dated 13 December 2018.
• The facility proposed is one of the seven components listed in the scheme.

You are not eligible and cannot apply if:

• You are an individual farmer, trader, commission agent or farmer producer organisation. This scheme has no individual benefit at all, and no application route for a private person. Farmers benefit as users of the facility, not as applicants.
• You represent a private market, a direct purchase centre or an e-market platform established under the 2007 amendments rather than a constituted Market Committee.
• The estimates were prepared by an engineer outside the approved panel.
• The facility proposed falls outside the seven listed components.
• The proposal is submitted directly to the department rather than routed through the Deputy Director and District Registrar of Co-operative Societies.

How to apply for assistance for modern facilities in a market committee

The scheme is applied for offline. There is no iKhedut or single-window online route for it, because the applicant is a statutory body rather than a citizen.

1. Decide the component and scope. The market committee resolves on which of the seven listed facilities it wants to build, keeping the Rs 50,00,000 project ceiling in view.
2. Appoint a panel engineer. Engage an engineer from the panel approved by the Director of Agricultural Markets and Rural Finance, Gujarat State, Gandhinagar, and get the development work maps and cost estimates prepared and certified.
3. Prepare the Annexure-1 details and undertaking exactly as prescribed by the department's circular Varah-12-2018-2191-2 dated 13 December 2018.
4. Submit the proposal through the Deputy Director and District Registrar of Co-operative Societies of the district in which the market committee is located, together with the maps, estimates, engineer's certification and Annexure-1.
5. Respond to scrutiny. The District Registrar's office examines the proposal and the estimates before the file moves upward for sanction.
6. Execute the work and account for it against the sanctioned estimate, since Group 2 components are shared-cost and the committee's own contribution must be evidenced.

How does a market committee follow up on its proposal?

1. Retain the inward number given by the office of the Deputy Director and District Registrar of Co-operative Societies when the proposal is lodged.
2. Follow up with that same office, which holds the file and is the single point of contact for the district. Contact details for every District Registrar are published at rcs.gujarat.gov.in/Home/DistrictRegistrar.
3. Refer queries on estimate standards or panel engineers to the Director of Agricultural Markets and Rural Finance, Gandhinagar, whose panel approves the estimates in the first place.

Why do market committee proposals get returned?

• Estimates prepared by a non-panel engineer. The scheme conditions the whole proposal on a panel engineer's work, so this defect cannot be cured by argument — the estimate has to be redone.
• Annexure-1 not enclosed or filled incompletely. The undertaking is the department's assurance against duplicate funding and cost inflation.
• Proposal cost exceeding Rs 50,00,000, which takes the project past the scheme ceiling regardless of merit.
• Wrong assistance percentage claimed, usually where an A or B class committee claims the 50% rate reserved for C and D class committees on Group 2 components.
• A component outside the seven listed items, for example an auction hall or an internal road, which this particular scheme does not cover.
• Direct submission to Gandhinagar instead of routing through the district Deputy Director and District Registrar.

Where can an APMC get help?

• Deputy Director and District Registrar of Co-operative Societies of the district. The office that receives and processes the proposal. Addresses and phone numbers are listed at rcs.gujarat.gov.in/Home/DistrictRegistrar.
• Director of Agricultural Markets and Rural Finance, Gujarat State, Gandhinagar, for the approved engineer panel and estimate standards.
• Agriculture, Farmers Welfare and Co-operation Department at agri.gujarat.gov.in, which publishes the scheme text, the Government Resolution and the planning guidelines this guide is based on.

An APMC pays no fee to the state for lodging a proposal. The only cost the committee bears at the application stage is the panel engineer's professional charge for preparing the maps and estimates, which is a normal establishment expense and not a payment to any government office.