Budgam, Sep 13 (KNO): Fruit growers and dealers in Charar-i-Sharief Budgam on Saturday warned of an impending collapse of the local fruit industry after repeated closures of National Highway-44 left fruit-laden trucks stranded for days, causing massive spoilage and heavy financial losses.
During a protest at Fruit Mandi Charar-i-Sharif, Association’s President, Bashir Ahmad Baba told the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) that consignments bound for other states including Delhi, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad are arriving rotten, leaving growers, dealers and transporters in severe distress.
“Either the government wants the people of Kashmir to die of hunger,” he said, “they do not realise that the fruit industry contributes to the livelihoods and GDP of this region. Tourism only survives when conditions here are good. If Jammu and Kashmir is a state of India, then why is there no attention to it?”
Baba described the annual pattern of disruption on the route and said the current season has been especially damaging. “Look at the condition of the markets, goods are rotting. Vehicle rates here are high and many transport owners take no responsibility. Transporters are leaving without help. When a vehicle finally reaches its destination after long delays it earns only one fare in 15 days.”
He criticised the wider economic impact, saying the industry serves national markets such as Azadpur and contributes large revenue sums to APMC, yet farmers receive little protection. “We pay taxes, the government takes money from us — do they want to end this industry?” Baba asked.
He said repeated assurances from Agriculture officials and highway/traffic authorities must now be turned into immediate action.
Baba estimated valley-wide losses between Rs 500–Rs 700 crore so far this season and warned of social consequences: many farmers who took loans for inputs like pesticides and packaging may be forced to sell land. “Seventy percent here depend on farming. If this continues, we will take to the roads,” he said, threatening wider protests if authorities do not act.
Baba welcomed the parcel train service from Budgam but called the current allocation of eight coaches insufficient. He urged the government to increase train capacity and to allow trucks to run on NH-44 on an alternating schedule — for example, two days Srinagar→Jammu and two days Jammu→Srinagar — to avoid prolonged stranding of perishable consignments.
A local transporter corroborated the damage: “I have 10–12 vehicles stuck on the road for the last several days. A vehicle can do only two rounds per month now. Only a few trucks carrying essentials are being allowed when landslides happened in Himachal and Uttarakhand too, but their highways were not closed for 10–15 days. We have lost crores. We pay heavy tolls — Rs 11,500 for one round to Delhi — yet a little rain halts everything when landslides occur.”
The Association demanded immediate restoration of highway movement for fruit trucks, compensation or relief measures for affected growers and a concrete response from the administration to prevent further losses—(KNO)