Srinagar 16 September :- CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami on Tuesday decried the severe crisis engulfing Kashmir’s apple industry, blaming the prolonged three-week closure of the Jammu-Srinagar National Highway—caused by damage to a 300-metre stretch in Udhampur—for causing losses he estimated to be in the “hundreds of crores” and exposing the absence of government safety nets for growers.
Speaking to reporters, Tarigami detailed how the blockade during the peak harvest season has completely severed the region’s link to outside markets, leaving local facilities unable to absorb the massive produce and resulting in apples rotting unsold in villages across Sopore, Baramulla, Shopian, Kulgam, and Anantnag, thereby devastating the primary income source for countless families.
He lambasted the authorities for their slow restoration work and demanded that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Union government take full responsibility and provide compensation for the mounting losses.
Furthermore, Tarigami highlighted critical policy failures, questioning why the government had not revived the Market Intervention Scheme to procure stranded fruit, and pointed out that apples remain excluded from both the Minimum Support Price (MSP) framework and crop insurance schemes, leaving growers perilously vulnerable to such disruptions.
