Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
(1) There shall be constituted a fund to be called the Punjab Rural Development Fund which shall vest in the Board. (2) The Fund constituted under sub-section (1) shall be administered by such officer or officers of the Board as may be appointed by it in this behalf. (3) The amount of fee 2[realised by a market committee established under the Punjab Agriculture Produce Markets Act, 1961 (Punjab Act 23 of 1961)] under sub-section (2) of section 5 shall be credited to theFund within such period as may be prescribed and the grants from the 3[State Government and local authorities and the loans raised by the Board under section 5-A] shall also be credited to this Fund. 4[6-A. Subject to the control of the Secretary to Government of Punjab, Department of Finance, who shall be the final audit authority, the accounts of the Fund shall be audited, as far as possible once in a year or half yearly, as the Government may direct, by or under the orders of the Examiner, Local Fund Accounts, Punjab.] 5[7. The Fund shall be applied for the following purposes, namely:- (i) for construction or repair of approach roads to mandis or procurement centres and street lights thereon enabling farmers in transportation of their produce; (ii) for construction or development of new mandis or procurement centres and development of old or katcha mandis or procurement centres; 1Inserted by Punjab Act No. 3 of 1999, Section 2 2Substituted for words “paid to the person or the officer appointed or designated by the Board” by Punjab Act No. 4 of 1994, Section 4 3Substituted for words “State Government and local authorities” by Punjab Act No. 3 of 1999, Section 3 4Inserted by Punjab Act No. 16 of 2016, Section 2 5Substituted by Punjab Act No. 14 of 2022, Section 2 Constitution of Fund. Purposes for which the Fund may be applied. Audit of Fund. Power to borrow by the Board. (iii) for making arrangements for supply of drinking water and for improving sanitation in the mandis or procurement centres; (iv) for providing well equipped rest houses or night shelters or sheds for farmers and labour engaged in procurement operations; (v) for augmenting storage facilities in mandis to store procured stocks so as to strengthen the procurement and marketing systems in the state; (vi) to provide relief to debt stressed farmers of the State to eliminate any possibility of distress sale; (vii) for development of hardware or software related to procurement or linking of land records, crop survey, bio-authentication of farmers at the mandis or State level which may improve transparency and facilities the procurement activities; (viii) for installation or purchase of computerized electronic weighbridge or weighment facilities or quality testing equipment’s or sieving facilities in the mandis or procurement centres and its integration with e-procurement module; (ix) for automation and mechanization of mandis with facility of cleaning, sorting, drying, analyzing quality of grains, small shipping silo, bag sacking and stitching; and (x) for carrying out such purposes which may led to strengthening of mandis or procurement operations.] 1[7-A. The State Government may direct the Board for the utilization of Fund, as it may deem fit, in the interest of the producers and for the benefit of the persons paying the fee, including the dealer.]