New Shopian fruit mandi a wretched, ‘desert-like’ place

New Shopian fruit mandi a wretched, ‘desert-like’ place

Anantnag: Fruit growers and traders here in Shopian district of south Kashmir have been forced to do business at a wholesale market which is devoid of even basic facilities like water, electricity, storage space and macadamised road.
Shopian district is one of the major producers of apples in Kashmir valley and the turnover last year at the district mandi – operating from a different space then – was more than Rs 900 crore.
The mandi has now been shifted to Aglar on the outskirts of Shopian town.
More than 400 apple traders and farmers do business at the mandi. All of them are unhappy.
“We were asked to shift to this facility, despite the place being devoid of basic facilities,” said Mushtaq Ahmad, a fruit trader. He compared the mandi to a desert, with only some auction sheds available to conduct business.
Many of the traders have been forced to erect tents amid clouds of dust blowing out from the un-macadamised earth.
“The dust is doing extreme harm to everyone’s health here. Besides, there is no electricity supply or water available in the mandi. Our customers from different parts of India find it extremely uncomfortable to visit such a filthy space,” another trader told Kashmir Reader.
The traders say that the district administration and the Planning and Marketing wing of the Horticulture department should not have forced them to shift base, given the condition of this place.
“We were told that the decision was taken keeping in view the Covid protocol and the health of people. However, shifting to this filthy place has done more harm than good to our health. We are being forced to work amid these clouds of dust day in and day out,” the traders lamented.
They also complained of having been burdened with the extra cost of running generator sets, as there is no power supply to the mandi.
“We had to buy new gen-sets and now have to bear the cost of running them. The year has already been grim in terms of low produce and now these extra costs,” a trader said.
Kashmir Reader talked to Deputy Director, Planning and Marketing wing of Horticulture department, Manzoor Ahmad Mir, who acknowledged that the new mandi was still under development.
“The district administration insisted that the old mandi cannot be used this year given the Covid protocol and the traffic mess it created in the town. So, we had to shift,” Mir said.
He added that the Aglar mandi project was funded under NABARD and two installments of the funding have already been received.
“The other two installments have been approved and the funds will be released soon. I hope that by next season the place will be developed as per the demands of the trade,” Mir said.

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