After the recent assurance, the concerned authorities must now act fast to fully solve the problem regarding frequent disruptions in the smooth movement of apple laden trucks on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.
The apple growers and traders have been alleging that the trucks are halted for days together and their movement frequently disturbed.
They say since the fruit does not reach markets outside J&K on time, its quality gets badly affected leading to financial losses to them.
The government must effectively find a way out, as the apple harvesting season is gaining momentum with every passing day now. Any further delay in solving the problem can badly hit the Kashmir economy, mostly dependent on apple trade.
Apple growers and traders on their part are approaching every concerned quarter to apprise them about their problem. During a meeting on Saturday between traders and inspector general of police (traffic), Vikramjit Singh, the latter told them that his department is trying its level best to manage the apple laden trucks on highway and even increased the time for down convoy for the purpose.
He suggested to the apple traders from Shopian to transport the fruit from Mughal Road to which the businessmen said that the long wait for trucks at a checkpoint at Poshana and poor maintenance of the Mughal Road were the problems.
The authorities on their part surely must be trying to solve the problem. But it is a fact that the problem is yet to be solved fully and needs a permanent solution. The hurdles must be identified and cleared. Taking it as a routine problem, cannot help.
The apple growers and traders are already having sleepless nights and their concerns need to be addressed. Reports regarding long queues of trucks on the Highway waiting for the smooth passage, and strong resentment by apple growers and traders are not encouraging signs.
On Saturday, a peaceful protest was held by fruit growers, traders and transporters at Fruit Mandi Aglar in Shopian against halting of trucks on highway. The transporters said that the fruit trucks do not reach the markets outside J&K on time, causing damage to the fruit.
They alleged that the trucks that left the Aglar Mandi on September 18 were still stranded at Qazigund. The transporters stated that that they were being denied freight charges by the traders after their trucks reach mandis beyond the scheduled time.
The traders said it takes a truck more than a week to reach Delhi now. The authorities at the top level must intervene and help the concerned officials in getting the issue resolved fully so that trucks are not halted frequently and they reach their destinations without any wastage of time.