HimVani
Shimla: District committee of Himachal Kisan Sabha today strongly condemned the state govt. for selling cartons through HPMC (Himachal Processing and Marketing Corporation) to the apple growers at higher price than that of open market.
District Secretary of HKS Sanjay Chauhan alleged that cartons supplied by state owned HPMC are being fixed on price band of Rs 39 per carton, whereas the best quality carton is available at Rs 35 to Rs 37 in open market. This higher price declared by HPMC at this early stage will give chance to private carton manufacturers to increase the prices of cartons. Even this year when the apple crop is very low, the state govt. has failed to regulate the prices of cartons and other packing material.
The state govt. has failed to make the due payments to the apple growers for fruit procured under Market Intervention Scheme (MIS) and forced the growers to buy inputs and other material at much higher prices. Kisan Sabha demanded that govt. should direct its unit to reduce the prices of cartons and should fix prices of carton and other inputs lesser than available in the open market. It further demanded that keeping in view the low production, the state govt. should give payments due to the apple growers worth Rs 58 crores since last year. Failing to this, Himachal Kisan Sabha would launch an agitation