HimVani
Shimla: Horticulture department has claimed that about 1.85 crore apple boxes have been sent to various fruit markets in the country from Himachal Pradesh till date.
A spokesperson of the department said in a statement here today that the apple season is at its peak and all possible arrangements are being ensured by the government for proper and timely transportation of apple from various parts of the state. On the other hand PWD minister Gulab Singh Thakur informed that the hill state has suffered a massive loss of Rs 332 crore due to recent rains, which has damaged many key roads and bridges.
While presiding over the meeting of senior PWD officials, he said efforts are on to restore the damaged roads, especially in the apple-growing areas where the marketing of fruit is at its peak now. He said that the state government has released Rs 10 crore to the public works department to take up restoration work on war footing.
But the Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association has expressed a deep concern on the bad plight of roads in the entire apple and vegetable belt of the state. Its president Sanjay Chauhan said transporters from outside the hill state were either refusing or taking double charges due to bad road conditions this year. “The government was not able to foresee the arrival of a huge crop as well as a healthy monsoon this year and could not make subsequent arrangements,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, the Himachal Kisan Sabha staged a big protest in the Shimla Fruit Mandi on Monday. The farmers later under their leader Dr Kuldip Tanwar gave a memorandum to the secretary, agriculture, Ram Subhag Singh. In an immediate acceptance of their demands, the officials agreed to fix an electronic weighing machine and to stop the age-old practice of weighing the agricultural produce on a manual machine.
PWD ministers toured Rohru area during last week of September and issue 'strict instructions' to the chief engineer to improve the road conditions in Shimla distt within a period of 15 days. Media carried this news boldly as "chakachak hongi sarken 15 din me". I had a chance to travel on lst October from Narkanda to Shimla and was expecting around 1000 labourers on this 64 km stretch because the target was to be completed in15 days in order to implement the Minister's orders. To my great astonishment not even one labour was seen working right upto Shimla which indicates how seriously the PWD minister is taken by the Chief Engineer. The minister has also threatened the chinese company of 'stern action'
and let's see that too. Now the CM has directed PWD to improve road conditions upto 15th Oct.and cancelled leave of PWD officers . We now look eagerly, how much the Chief Engineer cares for the Chief Minister's orders.
PWD ministers toured Rohru area during last week of September and issue 'strict instructions' to the chief engineer to improve the road conditions in Shimla distt within a period of 15 days. Media carried this news boldly as "chakachak hongi sarken 15 din me". I had a chance to travel on lst October from Narkanda to Shimla and was expecting around 1000 labourers on this 64 km stretch because the target was to be completed in15 days in order to implement the Minister's orders. To my great astonishment not even one labour was seen working right upto Shimla which indicates how seriously the PWD minister is taken by the Chief Engineer. The minister has also threatened the chinese company of 'stern action'
and let's see that too. Now the CM has directed PWD to improve road conditions upto 15th Oct.and cancelled leave of PWD officers . We now look eagerly, how much the Chief Engineer cares for the Chief Minister's orders.
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