Shimla: To highlight the problems being faced by farmers, mainly in the apple belt, Himachal Kishan Sabha (HKS) has decided to hold protest demonstrations on 13th September.
In a communiqué, Sanjay Chauhan, secretary HKS stated, “the demonstrations are being held to show the callous attitude of the government towards the problems of kisans, especially the apple growers.â€
“Various sections of the farmers, which would include apple growers, associations of apple growers would protest and submit a memorandum for the chief minister through the concerned tehsildars, sub divisional magistrates or other administrative officer,†he said.
He held that despite the government having made a projection of 3.25 crore apple boxes in June, adequate measure were not taken to hand such a volume, which has resulted in black marketing of packaging material, be it corrugated boxes or trays for placing apples in them.
Chauhan says that many areas in the apple belt were facing acute shortage of boxes as well as trays and to top it the market prices were hovering around Rs 140-550 for a 20 Kg box, which was not fetching remunerative returns to the growers.
Lamenting the road conditions, he said that traffic jams was a regular feature on National Highway 22 that runs into Kinnaur as well as on the Theog-Kotkhai-Jubbal-Rohru highway.
The alternate Chailla –Rajgarh road is closed since 18 days, said Chauhan. Condition of other rural roads was worse and some were closed down for long periods, he adds.
The government authorities had failed to enforce freight charges. Shortages of transport vehicles was forcing farmers to pay exorbitant freight fares, he claimed.
The planned protest intends to highlight these and other issues so that timely intervention of the government can be sought, says Chauhan.
As Editor, Ravinder Makhaik leads a team of media professionals at Hill Post.
Spanning a career of over two decades in mass communication, as a Documentary Filmmaker, TV journalist, Print Media journalist and with Online & Social Media, he brings with him a vast experience. He lives in Shimla.
I feel truly sad for the people out there at my village. When I called my father in June he was so happy to see the bumper apple crop and he was so happy to narrate me over the phone that ths year the turn over would be about 8 lacs. But now ths is sept and he is hardly able to make about 3 lacs for the same….credit goes to hailstones : that damaged crop so badly; poor road maintainence: raod was washed with every rain n no one bothered to fix it in time..ths lead to rotting of apples and delays to reach market could not get good rates for the crop…where is the govt and where is the system. ( ths is story of just one farmer who happen to b my father) …there are so many more who has suffered out of all ths.. i think govt need to format some system in place to meet such things…hope someone can address it…( I belong to village: diswani, Chirgaon, Shimla; currently i Australia)
its been so many years India been Independent but yet farmers are not getting the kind of facilities they deserves..Panchayati Raaj format which always sounded so promising for grass root level is just another job for local politicians to make money..This is the picture i get to c when i come to see realities of panchayati raaj at my panchayat….SAD but TRUE…