Jahangir Sofi / Syed Rafiyah
Srinagar, Sept 25: All the ten fruit mandis in Kashmir on Sunday began a two-day shutdown in protest against stopping of fruit-laden trucks on the Srinagar-Jammu national highway (NH) for several days, causing huge losses to the growers.
Over the past few days, the stopping of apple-laden trucks on the only surface connectivity has caused anger among fruit growers and drivers as they face losses.
There are ten fruit mandis in the valley which include Srinagar, Sopore, Shopian, Pulwama, Kulgam, Pachhar, Anantnag, Handwara, Baramulla and Ganderbal have started a two-day shutdown starting from Sunday.
Bashir Ahmed Basheer, President, Kashmir Valley Fruit Growers and Dealers Association (KVFG&DA) said the trucks are being stopped unnecessarily causing huge damage to the apples amid the peak season.
“The trucks are being halted for days altogether making fruit to rot and lose their sale contracts in the Mandis. Recently, I saw trucks that were stuck for 7-8 days which is very unfortunate,” he said.
Hundreds of apple-laden trucks moving towards Jammu and Delhi on a daily basis are being stopped on the highway near Qazigund tunnel, Anantnag and along the highway by traffic, security agencies managing the highway traffic, resulting in losses.
He said when the trucks are stopped for days, it directly affects the fruit and fruits often rot until trucks reach mandis.
“On Saturday we went to Qazigund and according to our assessment around 8000 fruit laden trucks were stranded from Bijbehra to Qazigund. Today as per the traffic movement plan, it was down to traffic, but that too was allowed only for a few hours.
“We are being told that there is a traffic jam or road issues. We fail to understand, it is the duty of traffic personnel to manage traffic movement on NHW-44, so why do we have traffic jams or related issues!” he asked.
“This is peak fruit season. At this time we should have been in our mandis helping farmers and traders. But we are begging on roads to make way for our trucks. This has never happened before,” he added.
He appealed to the Jammu and Kashmir government to make the passage of vehicles easy so that fruit growers do not face losses which ultimately drains the economy.
“We are completely following the road advisories and traffic movement schedule. From Jammu to Srinagar it takes only one day or two days. We fail to understand why only apple trucks are being stopped,” he said.
The president said even as J&K’s administration has lately issued advisories and instructions to the Traffic Department to ensure the smooth flow of trucks on the highway.
Basheer alleged that there is no implementation of the government issued advisories on the ground
“We are very thankful to the LG Manoj Sinha, Chief Secretary J&K and Additional Chief Secretary who understand the fragile situation. We respect their directions passed to authorities for ensuring smooth movement of traffic of fruit-laden trucks, but it is unfortunate the honorable directions are not being complied,” he added.
He added that to press for their demands they are also going to hold a ‘peaceful sit in protest’ in Srinagar wherein they will be pressing for the demand of making the movement of fruit-laden trucks smooth and hassle-free.
