Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Sept 14: The fruit growers and traders from the north as well as south Kashmir today staged a protest within the premises of mandis against the halting trucks filled with fruit on the Srinagar-Jammu National Highway.
They said that time and again they are made to face the issue and that the authorities have failed in ensuring a smooth passage to these trucks while they are on their way out of Kashmir heading to different mandis.
President of Sopore Fruit Mandi Fayaz Ahmed Malik said that they are already on the back foot due to losses which they have suffered in the last several years due to different reasons and now that these trucks are halted for days together, he said that the same is causing further losses to them.
“We have already suffered heavy losses during the last several years due to natural calamities and continued blockage of the National Highway and now unnecessarily stopping of fruit-laden trucks is adding to it,” he said.
The protestors alleged that it seems that the authorities were deliberately doing that despite clear-cut directions of the higher-ups in this regard. “Earlier when the Amarnath Yatra was on, we suffered a similar sort of situation, but then due to the intervention of the LG, the matter was sorted but now it is back,” they said.
Similar protests were held in different mandis across Kashmir, where those associated with the trade said that they are already facing a difficult situation concerning the markets.
“We are already facing a big issue of lack of buyers in the markets and whatever little we can send outside is also at stake keeping in view needless halting of the trucks on the national highway,” the protestors said.
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