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Apple growers of Himachal hit by bad roads, labour shortage

SHILMA: Instead of giving them the peace that comes with economic security, the massive crop of apple this time in the higher reaches of Himachal is giving nightmares to the farmers.

The prices of apples have come down to almost half in various marketing yards in the State and outside. The total produce sent to the market before the middle of this month would touch a whopping figure of more than a crore boxes of 20-22 kg each, according to an estimate.

Whereas plucking in the higher reaches of some blocks of Shimla and Kullu is yet to start, there is already a big shortage of labour and transportation in the lower regions. Narendra Chauhan, an apple grower from Kanletta village in Kiari, complained that the waiting period for a truck or a pickup van carrying 400 and 200 boxes respectively, is more than a week or 10 days. The local truck unions are creating a false scarcity and a panic amongst the growers who are suffering from the problem of plenty this time, he said.

Many truck operators from the neighbouring States have refused to come to the hills due to bad roads and the never-ending traffic jams, said Chauhan.

The four-lane expansion going on in the entire apple belt in anterior Shimla is also being widely criticised by the farmers for its bad timing. The construction work, coupled with heavy rains in some of the places, has ripped up even the existing roads, complained a majority of the growers.

The farmers are also complaining of a massive shortage of manual workers this time as a majority of them have refused to come after the successful implementation of NERGA in their native places. “We are paying double wages to the Gurkhas from Nepal to retain them here,” said Rameshwar Sharma, a grower from Jubbal. He further said there was a big dearth of graders and packers (skilled workers) and the State had so far done nothing in this regard. Only a few big growers have their own graders and packers, he complained.

To top it all, the Commission Agents of Delhi's Azadpur Mandi have gone on a lightening strike after the government banned the commission they were charging from the growers. Apples are rotting in hundreds of trucksin Delhi.

State Horticulture Minister Narendra Bragta has, however, claimed that a smooth movement of the fruit is on to various markets and it is the Opposition which is giving misleading statements regarding the same for settling political scores.

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Apple growers of Himachal hit by bad roads, labour shortage

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