Growers say halting fruit trucks on Sgr-Jmu highway causes losses to them

Sopore, Sep 19: Growers in Sopore are up in arms against halting of trucks laden with fruit on Srinagar-Jammu highway.

President buyers association fruit mandi Sopore, Mudasir Ahmed Bhat said, that they have suffered heavy losses because of continued blockage of the highway.

He alleged that the authorities are unnecessarily stopping trucks and it seems they deliberately want them to suffer.

“Earlier, we had a meeting with the chief secretary and we were assured that the trucks won’t be halted but nothing has been done on the ground to ease our miseries. Instead our trucks are being hated again and again,” Mudasir added.

Razza ur Rehman, a Bangladeshi national who is dealing with fruit trade at Fruit Mandi Sopore from last 15 years said that they are now on a verge to wind up the business as they are facing huge losses.

“It was earlier taking seven days to reach fruit trucks from Sopore fruit mandi to Bangladesh but now it’s taking at least 12-15 days. Upon reaching the destiny the items we supply gets rotten and thus it is of no use”, Raza added.

Similarly, scores of Bangladeshi nationals who deal with the fruit trade urge administration to take immediate necessary steps for transportation of fresh fruit-laden trucks on Srinagar-Jammu National Highway without any hindrance.

Notably, fruit growers and buyers across the Kashmir valley are continuously protesting time to time over the halting of trucks along the national highway.kno