Apple Row: Kashmiri Politicians Threaten Large-Scale Demonstrations as Fruit Rots on Highway

14:51 GMT, 27 September 2022

Azaan Javaid

The horticulture sector, worth $1 billion, is considered the backbone of Jammu and Kashmir’s economy, with over 3.5 million people directly or indirectly dependent on it for income. Apples form a significant chunk of the sector, with 1.7 million tons grown annually.

Sputnik

A political row is looming in Kashmir after thousands of trucks carrying millions of metric tons of apples have been stranded on a highway that connects the region with the rest of the country.

Frustrated over the situation, Kashmiri political parties threatened to hold large-scale anti-government protests, accusing local authorities of deliberately halting the movement of nearly 8000 apple-laden trucks to Indian cities where the fruit is sold.

Bashir Ahmed Bashir, chairman of one of Kashmir’s prominent fruit sellers’ associations, told Sputnik on Tuesday that the stranded trucks are carrying goods worth $12 million.

Meanwhile, former state chief and president of the region’s Peoples Democratic Party, Mehbooba Mufti, who joined protesting farmers and apple traders at a fruit wholesale market in the Shopian district, accused the government of trying to “crush” the local economy and threatened to “join the people” and ”block the national highway” if the government doesn't deal with the situation.

His fiery speech came a day after Divisional Commissioner P K Pole assured that all stranded trucks would be cleared and that the trucks were only halted due to falling stones and inclement weather. However, fruit traders maintain that a large portion of apples have already been destroyed after being stranded for around two weeks.

The president of the fruit seller’s association in northern Kashmir, Mudasir Ahmed Bhat, said in a statement that producers are currently suffering losses worth around $80 million in September alone due to the halting of trucks along the highway.

“If the government does not deal with the crisis we will be forced to join the protesting growers in Qazigund (the place where most of the trucks are stranded),” President of the Apni Party Altaf Bukhari, who has also served as finance minister in the PDP-BJP alliance government, told Sputnik.

Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference (JKPC) politician Mansoor Hussain Sohrawardhy also expressed grave concerns over the apple crisis, terming the situation “lethal” for Kashmir’s economy.