Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Aug 22: As harvesting season is underway, the Kashmir fruit industry is suffering heavy losses due to continuous shutdowns and round-the-clock curfew imposed by State Government to tackle ongoing violence in region that raged after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani and his associates.
Chairman of Kashmir Fruit Growers Association, Bashir Ahmad, said that the transportation of fruits from Valley to outside States has come down to 75% from normal transportation since the unfolding of violent unrest and subsequent imposition of curfew in wake of Burhan Wani’s killing on July 8.
“If 100 fruit-laden trucks were dispatched in normal situation to outside States, the number came down to 250 in curfew. The dispatching of 250 trucks was possible due to night movement of vehicles on National Highway but with the imposition of night curfew, it has become nearly impossible now,” he said.
Claiming that the figures provided by the State Government recently over the transportation of fruit from Kashmir valley to outside States are ‘false’, Bashir said: “They have provided false information and tried to mislead the media.” The Government last Friday claimed that in the current month, 8876 Metric Tons of fruit have been dispatched in 953 truckloads outside the State.
The southern districts of Kashmir produce highest quantity of fruit and in the ongoing unrest the region is most affected due to the unrest as the violence started from there after Burhan’s killing and over 40 killings alone occurred in four south Kashmir districts. The fruit growers said that besides curfew some other problems including non-availability of trucks for transportation to local mandis, labour and attacks by protesters on vehicles is also resulting in losses to them.
According to a top official of Horticulture Department, the Horticulture is one of the core sectors of the State economy which contributes around Rs 5000 crore annually. “Any delay in transportation of fruit to the mandis would lead to massive losses not only for orchardists but will hit the State economy as well,” he said.
The concern of growers has now increased as the harvesting season of famed delicious apple is about take-off but if the situation like that of today persists they apprehend huge losses. “We are very much concerned about the transportation of our delicious apple fruit. If disallowed, the fruit would rot down in orchards and the losses would be heavy,” said Bashir Ahmad of Kashmir Fruit Growers Association.
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