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Thursday - November 21, 2024

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Apple Farmers stir in Shimla (file)

SHIMLA: After facing a lot of flake from the agitated apple farmers, APMC president and BJP leader, Naresh Sharma today was on the defensive reiterating that the high-powered committee under Prof  Rajeshwar Chandel, vice-chancellor of Nauni University has taken a slew of steps to address the demands of the growers.

But Sharma remained silent on the main charter of  demands of farmers submitted to Chief Minister earlier under the banner of Syunkt Kisan Manch.  

Even as Sharma claimed at a press conference here today that the Bagwans would get good prices for apples, but the Adani agrifresh decreased the rates by two rupees next day after the apple farmers had a meeting with the company managers .

As a matter of fact, SKM had staged massive protest in front of HP Secretariat,  followed by a Jail Bharo Andolan on The Ridge and Gherao of the CA Stores of Adani's, which procure apple directly from the farmers.

The farmers took to the street amid the peak harvesting season in a row, ventilating their anger over the rocketing cost prices of production that has pushed apple farming, a mainstay of over 9 lakh  families,  into a huge crisis over the years. 

SKM reiterated their main demands remained unaddressed and the government has been resorting to the delaying  theatrics.     

There are complaints that the Adani agrifresh is not giving crates for the farmers as it used to do in the past to get the plucked fruit back to their buying outlets at Sainj, Rohru and Bithal.

Secondly the Cameras on the grading lines of CA stores do not scan the apple comprehensively, complained the farmers.

The manual checking by the workers on the grading lines at CA stores is deliberated at  picking and labeling as "much quantity of B grade fruit  as they can” so that the premium quantity is less, while 10 grades get higher quantity,  which are priced as low as Rs 15 per kg”, resented the apple farmers.

The farmers are not getting payments from arhtiyas even after months, what to talk about getting the payment on the same day as stipulated in the APMC Act.

APMC remains silent on strict enforcement of the APMC Act in Mandis to check the arhtiyas as the APMC committee is playing into the hands of the arhtiyas and traders, the farmers charged.  

Naresh Sharma, however, told press conference that the companies buying apples will have to follow the notification issued by the government in 2018 regarding the colour and weight of apples.

Second, the CA stores of the companies, which are not functional and the companies whose representatives did not attend the committee meeting will also be issued notices, he claimed. 

Sharma said that the CA store operators and farmers are expected to give their suggestions to the committee in ten days time.

Sharma however claimed this committee is working to solve all solve problems of the farmers apart from ensuring good rates for the fruit.

In this, representatives of farmers organizations will also be able to register their objections. Suggestions from all sides will be studied, he claimed.

The next meeting of this high-powered  committee will be held on September 14 and then the committee will prepare its final report and send it to the government.

But the Sayunkt kisan Manch which is spearheading the apple farmers’ stir, plead that the government has deployed all delaying tactics as the SKM has already submitted the 20-point charter of demands to the Chief Minister few months ago.

The government is silent on main demands of the farmers- they demand Rs 60 per kg for Grade A apple, Rs 46 for grade B apple and Rs 24 per kg for Grade C apple.

“Once the government does this the markets will stabilize and the traders including arhtiyas and private companies would not exploit markets as they have been doing over the years”, the farmers rebutted.   

Sharma ducked this  issue saying that state government is also bearing the increased 6% GST on apple cartons.

HPMC has been directed that procure one crore apple cartons for packaging so that the Bagwans are not inconvenienced.

Naresh reiterated the government has reintroduced subsidies on insecticides, fungicides and other medicines. Now all the medicines will be available only in the centers of the Horticulture Department.

He said that this time there was no shortage of fertilizers and fertilizers for the farmers, he claimed.

The subsidy on agricultural equipment which was stopped for a long time has been reintroduced.

Naresh Sharma claimed farmers would get payment of MSP on time. MSP has also been increased by Rs 4.55 in 2022 as compared to 2017, which used to be only 25 to 50 paise in the previous government, he claimed.

He said special emphasis is being laid on setting up of fruit based processing units like wine and cider to benefit the farmers ensuring remunerative prices for their crops.

He said production will be started at the fruit processing unit being built at Parala at a cost of Rs 91 crore.

Parala Mandi is being developed as Adarsh ​​Mandi. Cold store is being built in Parala vegetable market. More than Rs 60 crore is being spent to further improve the storage facilities of fruits and vegetables, he claimed.

This CA store will have a capacity to store thousands of metric tonnes.

By increasing the capacity of fruit processing, the wastage of apples will be saved and farmers will get good prices in the market.

The construction work of this plant will be completed in January 2023. Along with this Parwanoo and Jadol fruit processing units will also be upgraded with funds worth Rs 17 crore, Sharma claimed.

He claimed a subsidy of Rs 20 crore has been given by the government on Anti-Hail nets till December 2021 benefitting 1,823 farmers.

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