Himachal CM directs for making elaborate arrangements for apple season

He said that to facilitate the fruit growers, HPMC has empanelled 26 firms for the supply of packaging material viz. cartons, separators, trays and other material

While presiding over a meeting to review the preparedness regarding the harvesting of the apple crops, chief minister Jai Ram Thakur directed the officials to make elaborate and comprehensive arrangements for transportation of apple produce so that orchardists do not face any inconvenience for taking their produce to the markets amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

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He said that to facilitate the fruit growers, HPMC has empanelled 26 firms for the supply of packaging material viz. cartons, separators, trays and other material.

About 1.20 crore cartons are ready with these firms for supply to the orchardists, he added.

Thakur said that the horticulture department has made arrangements for the marketing of the crop at Aazadpur mandi in New Delhi and Gannaur Mandi at Sonipat in Haryana.

He said that controlled atmosphere stores have been identified in government and private sectors in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi having a total capacity of about 1.17 lakh metric tonnes.

Besides this cold storage facility of 32,000 MT is available to facilitate the horticulturists, he added.

He directed the public works department to ensure proper maintenance of the roads and other linking roads in the apple growing areas to make to ensure smooth movement of vehicular traffic.

He said that law and order situation must be ensured during the apple season in the areas for which control room at various locations must be set up to ascertain the smooth movement of trucks, to and fro.

The Chief Minister said that the horticulture department must also hold a meeting with the contractors to make arrangements of labour.

Thakur said that adequate arrangements must be made to facilitate the labourers.

He said that the farmers must be motivated to avoid the use of colour spray so as to slow down to the season.

He said that alternative arrangements of labourers must be made. He said that if required the state government could even consider sending buses up to even Dehradun and other places to bring Nepali labourers to the state.

He said that matter should also be taken with the district administration of bordering districts of Nepal to bring labourers to the state.

Thakur said that the farmers of the state would get a remunerative price of their produce as this year the import of apples from other countries would not be possible this year due to the pandemic.

A mechanism must be developed to bring labour from different parts of the state to the apple growing areas. This would not only reduce the over-dependency of growers on Nepali labour but also facilitate the horticulturists, he added.