The divisional administration has finally decided to open the Mughal road for transporting cherry, and other fresh fruit from the valley to the outside states. For some time this demand form the orchidists was made to save Kashmir economy from another huge loss. Given the current lockdown, the closure of markets, and an overall atmosphere of restrictions all over India, the movement of goods has been greatly affected. This has resulted in a severe loss to the economy and the same has been realised by one and all, be the officers in the administration, the top leadership in power, or an ordinary person. But the situation was such that nothing much could be done to help the routine economic activities. But in al this, some areas needed special attention. So the administration had to make an exception, because not doing do so would incur a loss that could not be compensated later. Cherry, and other fresh fruit that is ready for consumption in this season also called for a special attention. We all know that a fruit like cherry has very little shelf life. There is also a limit to local market consumption. After all the entire produce cannot be consumed by a market that is of the size that it is in the valley. Also we don’t have too many facilities of Controlled Atmosphere, commonly known as cold storage, where we could dump the entire produce.
So the only way left was to ensure that the produce moves out of the valley and finds its way into different market conduits across India. Keeping all this in background the deciton taken by the divisional administration is good, and the same understating should be applied in other areas of human activities. The blanket idea of imposing restrictions, and not thinking about alternatives and not making exceptions is not a good way of managing things. When the situation is dynamic, and each time new problems surface up, the administration have to keep eyes and ears open, and make decision in the real time. Here, one would also like to underline the importance of advance thinking. The administration must be ready with responses to the likely problem, demands, and issues. That makes it easier to take a decision, when it is needed.