SHIMLA: Apple growers in Himachal Pradesh have come down heavily on government agencies, including the Himachal Pradesh Horticulture Produce Marketing and Processing Corporation (HPMC), for allegedly subjecting growers to unnecessary harassment by demanding revenue land records when they bring more than 100 apple bags for procurement under the Market Intervention Scheme (MIS).
Growers said they were being asked to produce land records and submit documents at SDM offices merely because the quantity of apples they brought for procurement exceeded 100 bags. They termed the practice arbitrary, humiliating and completely disconnected from the realities of apple production.
The issue was strongly raised by Sanjay Chauhan, who questioned the Revenue Department's action of issuing notices to farmers based on the quantity of apples produced and asking them to explain their possession or cultivation of large areas of apple orchards before revenue officials.
Chauhan described the move as illegal, undesirable and an unnecessary burden on farmers and apple growers. He said the government should be facilitating growers at a time when the horticulture sector is already under severe stress instead of pushing them into needless rounds of revenue and administrative offices.
“The quantity of apples produced by a grower cannot become the basis for subjecting him to unnecessary administrative scrutiny,” the growers argued.
Apple growers pointed out that they are already battling soaring input and production costs, repeated weather-related disasters, crop losses and growing uncertainty in the market. Instead of addressing these problems, they said, the administration was adding another layer of paperwork and official harassment.
The growers particularly questioned the logic of demanding land records from a farmer simply because his orchard has produced more than 100 bags of apples.
A productive orchard, they said, can naturally generate a large quantity of fruit, and the volume of produce cannot by itself be treated as grounds for suspicion.
Chauhan demanded that the government immediately exercise discretion and stop issuing such notices to apple growers.
He said farmers should not be dragged into unnecessary administrative proceedings when the government should actually be helping them market their produce and protect their livelihoods.
He warned that such measures could undermine the very purpose of the MIS, which was introduced to provide growers with a degree of protection when market conditions turn adverse.
The All India Kisan Sabha, Himachal Apple Producers Association (Theog), Apple Producers Association (Chopal) and other apple growers' organisations have backed the demand for an immediate rollback of the practice.
The growers said the government must stop treating farmers as offenders for producing a good crop and instead concentrate on remunerative prices, effective market intervention, disaster compensation and reduction in production costs.
They demanded that the Revenue Department and procurement agencies immediately withdraw the notices and end what they described as an unnecessary bureaucratic assault on Himachal's already distressed apple economy.
