Cherries without market
Cherry growers of Kashmir valley have appealing to the authorities for the past two months to arrange special air cargo flights to lift fresh cherry from Kashmir to Mumbai.
According to these growers they were having tie up with business houses in Mumbai to supply fresh cherries of this season.
However, officials have maintained as usual stoic silence over this burning issue forcing the growers to suffer huge losses. Cherry trees across the Kashmir Valley are laden with fruit after a good season but farmers are staring at the possibility of heavy losses due to a lack of transportation because of the Covid-19 lockdown.
The railways have offered to ease the burden of farmers by transporting the fruit to various states from Amritsar. However, farmers continue to be worried because of problems related to the movement of trucks till Amritsar.
Officials have claimed in media that they requested Northern Railways to help transport Kashmir’s cherries and this was accepted on the condition that the fruits are delivered to the railhead at Amritsar.
“From June 1, Northern Railways has agreed to transport four to six metric tonnes of cherries daily from Amritsar to Delhi and Mumbai. Fruit growers have requested the government to arrange rail service for the cherry fruit from Jammu terminal, but the authorities have failed to provide such service so far.
