Excelsior Correspondent
Srinagar, Nov 5: Even as the Divisional Administration has fixed the rates of mutton in Kashmir, the wholesalers and retailers of the business today rejected the rates and said that they are facing hardships due to it.
All Kashmir Mutton Wholesale and Retail Association along with others stated that they were not a party to the decision that was taken by the administration on its own without considering their proposal for the rates of mutton which they have already submitted to the concerned department.
“The recent decision was taken by the authorities where they have decided rates of mutton at Rs 480/Kg. The said decision has come as a shocker to us. The last time when the rates were revised it was in 2016 and the rates of the mutton were set as 400/Kg,” the Association said.
It said that they have been asking the authorities to set the rates of mutton, however, after repeated appeals, the authorities did not budge.
“After the repeated approaches, the rates of the mutton were not revised we had already submitted proposed break up of mutton rates to the concerned department,” they said.
The Association made it clear that they were not a party to the decision that was taken by the administration. “We were never a part of this decision as we had already submitted a break up of mutton rates. There are more than 20000 families directly dependent on this business,” it said.
Mehraj u Din Ganai, President of the Association said that while they were invited to attend the meeting, “but nobody listened to us,” he said.
Regarding the rates that have been set, the association said that that as per guidelines, there should have been around 10-15 per cent increase in the rates every year, but the administration has incremented the rates by just Rs 80 since 2016.
“Since the last revision of rates in 2016 which was Rs 400/kg and more than 5 years, the administration has given an increment of Rs 80 which is just 4 per cent in a year. However, as per the standard guidelines, the increment should have been almost 10 to 15 per cent after every year,” it said.
The traders challenged the administration to explain the technical justification of the rates that have been set and also said that they can explain their proposal well as per the technicalities.
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