Agro mall concept fails to click as bidders wary of buying properties

The agro malls were brought into existence in four districts of Haryana in order to provide all kinds of facilities to the farmers under one roof but agro malls failed to meet the expectation of the farmers as well as other stakeholders and the government. In wake of this, the state government has decided to sell the shops built in these malls but what is more surprising here is that buyers did not show any interest in purchasing the shops.

The Haryana state agriculture mandi Board (HSAMB) had invited bids to e-auction the agro malls several times but the scenario continued to remain unchained. In view of the lack of buyers, the e-auction of agro malls was rescheduled time by time. But again due to the lack of bidders, the auction could not be completed. Following this, all properties have now been sent to the cancelled list so far. One of the officials associated with the auction said that auctions were cancelled as there were no bidders to buy the properties and they will again put these properties for sale.

Contrary to this, the farmer leaders said several times that farmers will not allow the government to sell agro malls to private people at any cost. It is pertinent to mention that out of 91 shops constructed in agro mall Panchkula on the first floor, 88 shops were allotted during 2008 and out of 46 located on the third floor, as many as 34 shops were allotted. While the first and second floor is lying vacant and the same has been offered for offices to various government departments on rent basis. Requests have been received from five departments boards corporation for taking space on a rent basis and the same is under process. The office of Haryana international horticulture marketing corporation limited has already been established on the first floor in agro mall Panchkula. In continuation to this, 78 out of 282 shops were auctioned during 2003 in agro mall Rohtak and e-auction was fixed for 30 December 2019 and 19 January 2022 but no application was received during the auction.

Besides, agro mall located in Karnal and Panipat are completely vacant and e-auction to sell these properties on as is where its basis was fixed for 17 November 2021 which was further extended up to 2 December 2021 as during this period only a single AMD was received.

Therefore keeping in view the insufficient response, it was decided to reschedule the option accordingly and the advertisement was published through several mediums. Again date for e-auction was fixed twice and the auction date was extended to 22 March 2022.