Objections over the draft of the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) Act for Punjab, raised by the legal remembrancer (LR), have finally been cleared by the Punjab Mandi Board.

Secretary of the Punjab Mandi Board Deepinder Singh said the draft was now likely to be submitted before the cabinet for approval.

The cabinet sub-committee has already approved the draft. The amendments will open doors for the non-public sector companies to set up private agri-markets in Punjab. Presently, agri-markets have been confined to the domain of the Punjab State Agriculture Marketing Board. The amendment will also enable private players to set up state-of-the-art terminal markets for fruits and vegetables.

The Union Ministry of Agriculture had set March 31 as the last date for approving amendments.

Gujarat, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana have already amended the Act. Officials said Punjab, which had sought more time from the Union Ministry for making amendments, is just in time to ensure that it does not lose the Central grant of over Rs 1,000 crore.

Five companies have presented their bids to the government for setting up terminal markets. These include Voltas, Blue Star, Premier Farm Fresh Limited, Acme Limited and Cry Air.

The government has proposed market terminals at Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana and Muktsar, while wholesale grain markets have been proposed at Mohali and Amritsar.