RABIA NOOR

Srinagar, June 12: Valley traders associated with cross-LoC business Thursday launched a scathing attack on the government of India accusing it of approving those items for import from the other side “as are of no benefit to us.”
 The traders told Greater Kashmir that most of the items mentioned in the approved list for import had no demand at all in the Valley. “As far as market is concerned, most of the approved items for import are of no use to us, as neither they have any demand in the Kashmir market, nor do they fetch us good returns,” said Hilal Ahmad Turki, spokesperson of the Salamabad-Chakoti Traders’ Association.
 He said by importing these items, the traders were suffering huge losses. “Out of 21 approved items, only green gram had a good market in Kashmir, which, however, has been put under ban by the Pakistan government,” Turki said and added that the traders had incurred losses worth lakhs of rupees for past three weeks after trade of green gram was banned.
  “We can’t import dry fruits every time, since even one truckload of dry fruit can suffice to the whole Valley,” he said.
 He said they had been getting good returns for items like garlic, dates, black mushroom, etc, “but then the government from time to time imposes ban on the trade of these items.”
 Turki said the volume of goods imported from PaK had come down only because the approved items did not have good market in the Valley.  “That is why this week only 24 trucks rolled down from Chakoti to Kashmir. Now not many traders are ready to import consignments from PaK, since they fear losses,” he said.
 The traders appealed to chief minister Omar Abdullah to allow them to import those items from PaK, which, they said, commanded demand in the Valley.
 “We appeal to the CM to personally look into this issue and provide us relief by allowing us to import goods of demand,” said Turki.
  “If government is serious about this trade, they have to come up with some solution,” he added.
 He said the traders had raised the issue with minister for Industries and Commerce, Surjeet Singh Salathia, who, he said, had assured them to bring their concerns in the notice of central government and get the list of 21 items modified. “But so far neither have we seen any fresh list, nor anything has been done to address our demand,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 12 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 12 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 13 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST