Srinagar: Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Pandurang K Pole Tuesday said that almost all Jammu-bound trucks were cleared and normal traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway (NH-44) had been restored.
An official spokesman in a statement issued here said that the divisional administration put tremendous efforts to ensure that all the stranded trucks moved toward Jammu.
The divisional commissioner said that on Monday more than 4000 trucks were sent through NH-44 while on Tuesday, 1250 vehicles were sent through the Mughal Road to the Jammu side.
He said that normal traffic on NH-44 had been restored.
Pole said that the government was promoting horticulture by all means and asserted that high-density apple plantation was gaining momentum.
He said that during the last four years more than 10,000 kanal of land had been used for high-density plantations.
“With 50 percent subsidy, 350 nurseries have been registered to have a capacity of growing 10 lakh saplings per year,” the divisional commissioner said. “To check the quality of pesticides and fertilizers, the labs were established by the government besides soil testing lab at Shopian started to minimise the production cost.”
He said that with subsidy grants from the Centre, 2 lakh tonne capacity cold stores were created recently.
“To give minimum assured prices to apple, procurement through NAFED was done for two years,” Pole said.
He asserted that all these concrete supportive steps had increased production of apples as a result of which this year Kashmir was poised to break all records of production which might touch 21 lakh metric tonnes.
“Ultimate objective is to ensure doubling of farmers’ income,” the divisional commissioner said.
