GUJRAT: The Punjab government has approved a ‘model cattle market’ to be established in Gujrat and the district administration has selected a site besides planning construction of necessary infrastructure there.

No tax or municipality fee will be charged from the market. With the establishment of the model cattle market all other such businesses, official or private, will be prohibited in the district.

Official sources told Dawn the Punjab government had decided to establish at least 13 model cattle markets in the province, with one in Gujrat. The district government had already started its initial work on the plan.

Three cattle markets were already allowed in the district. Two were in Gujrat tehsil -- Saroki and Jalalpur Jattan.

The third one in Sara-i-Alamgir has not been operative for the last decade. It was around 145 years old but due to ‘criminal slackness’ of the authorities concerned to facilitate a private cattle market at the camping ground along GT Road Kharian, the market had been neglected.

Tehsil municipal administrations were entitled to hold a cattle market through annual auction and in most rural areas these had been a major source of income for the administrations.

The resources would then be often used for uplift projects. The Saroki cattle market had been auctioned for Rs120 million last year.

However, the model cattle markets would be run by district governments rather than auctioning them. The government is all set to abolish tax/fee collection on cattle trading from July 1.

The district government had selected a large piece of land near Saroki village along Sargodha Road for the establishment of the market. Over 25-acre land was currently being used by the private contractor of the cattle market.

The piece of land was likely to be acquired by the Punjab government as the price assessment committee had estimated its market price around Rs185 million. The land could initially be purchased on lease.

As per the official plan, Rs275 million would be required for developing infrastructure, including 16 big animal sheds (slaughtering animals), 12 big animal sheds (milk producing animals), four small animal sheds (slaughtering), five sheds for other animals, temporary sheds for all kind of animals, platform for small trucks and pick-ups, washrooms, cafeteria, dispensary, office, ruminants, parking for big trucks and several other facilities.

A plant to recycle animal manure would also be installed at the site to make best use of the waste and producing fertiliser and gas etc.

Gujrat Additional District Collector Farooq Rasheed confirmed the Punjab government had approved a model market in Gujrat, however, he said funds for acquisition of the required land near Saroki had not been issued.

He said there were no chances of getting the land on lease as construction of the infrastructure would not be possible since the government had to spend a large chunk of funds on developing immovable infrastructure.

It is learnt the government had already planned to abolish fee collection from all cattle markets to facilitate dairy and cattle farmers. The PML-N government reportedly wanted to take credit for this measure as the party had done during its previous regimes by abolishing district councils and municipal committee taxes on inter-district trade.