Control of sale and purchase of agricultural produce.

(1) From the date of issue of notification under section 6 or from such later date as may be specified therein, no person, unless exempted by rules made under this Act, shall, either for himself or on behalf of another person or the State Government, within the notified market area, set up, establish or continue or allow to be continued any place for the purchase, sale, storage and processing of the agricultural produce or purchase, sell, store or process such agricultural produce except under a licence granted in accordance with the provisions of this Act, the rules and bye-laws. made there under and the conditions specified in the licence. (2) From the date on which the State Government has, by a notification under section 7, declared any place to be a principal or sub-market yard, no person, municipal committee, panchayat, panchayat samiti or any other local authority, not withstanding anything contained in sub-section (I) or in any enactment relating to such municipal committee panchayat samiti, panchayat or local authority, shall be competent to set up, establish or continue or allow to be continued any place within a distance of five kilometers from the outer limits of such market yard for the purchase and sale of any agricultural produce: Provided that nothing herein contained shall apply to the sale of agricultural produce stored in a cold-storage or processed and kept in a factory. (3)Nothing contained in sub-sections (1) and (2) shall apply to (a) the sale of agricultural produce by a producer himself to any person who purchases it for his private consumption ; (b)the purchase by a person from any person of any agricultural produce for his private consumption ; (c) the sale or purchase of agricultural produce through retail sale ; and (d)The storage or the sale of hypothecated agricultural produce by a scheduled bank or ware house established under the Warehousing Corporations Act, 1962, or the Punjab Warehouses Act, 1957. (4)The State Government may, for reasons to be recorded in writing, exempt any class of dealers from the provisions of sub-sections (1) and (2)