Senior Peoples Conference (PC) leader Abdul Gani Vakil Saturday demanded a special package for the fruit growers and apple traders.
In a statement, Vakil said most of the people in the applefarming had kept the fruit in cold storages in different cities of the countrylike Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Calcutta and Patna, but tt was totally destroyedand rotten because of COVID19 lockdown.
“This has lead to huge losses to fruit growers. Appletraders had already faced massive losses in the recent past because ofunexpected heavy snow fall and hailstorms,” he said.
Vakil expressed concern over the untimely fall of appleblossom which has raised alarm bells among the fruit growers and apple traderswith many speculations that it will lead to losses even this year also.
“The reason being is substandard pesticides provided tofruit growers in the market where the government failed to check the quality ofpesticides that lead to untimely fall of apple blossom,” Vakil said.
He blamed the administration for the callous approach anddemanded a probe.
Vakil urged Lt Governor GC Marmu to take the important issueof rotten apple in different cold storages on priority basis with the centrewith the recommendation for special package including waving off KCC loan.
He said the governmentmust identify those elements who were responsible for providing substandardpesticides to fruit growers and apple traders in the market.