This time, there has been an excellent yield of apples in Kashmir, but the apples produced with the hard work of the agriculturists are rotting on the Jammu-Srinagar highway. Trucks laden with apples are stationed on the highway for 2-3 days, and this is going on for a month now. Agriculturists are calling this a type of loot. They have alleged that this is happening because of the pressure exerted by businessmen operating big cold-storages, so that the agriculturists are forced to sell their produced to cold-storages rather than taking them to the open mandi.
This is because an apple lying on the highway for 2-3 days starts rotting and its prices fall rapidly. A complaint has also been filed with the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha by the Apple Farmers Federation of India (AFFI). The federation has claimed that around 5000 trucks are on a halt. Not only the farmers, but small businessmen are also facing losses. A loss of 500 crores has already been recorded.
While 2000 trucks of apples leave Kashmir daily, apples laden in the halted trucks are rotting, and after they reach the mandi after remaining on the highway for many days at a stretch, the prices drop automatically. As per the administration, the highway was shut because of landslides and constructions, but after massive protests, the administration has initiated action into the matter as well. The highway’s traffic SSP has been removed. But the farmers have stated that this has not helped the situation. PDP leader Mehbooba Mufti has called this ‘economic terrorism’.
