It is really a matter of great concern that every year during the fruit season, the Government in J&K starts pondering over giving priority to the trucks laden with the perishable items raising the adrenaline levels of those stakeholders who had toiled the whole year for the high yield of the fruit crop.
As transporting fruits out of the Valley is a regular feature, it is needful that the government should come out with a universal remedy to ensure fast travel of the fruit laden trucks by removing all kinds of bottlenecks, which hamper the free flow of traffic during these months of the year. Going for a traffic plan afresh every year shows complacency of the authorities and often leads to delay in the transportation of fruits to various destinations across the country giving a tough time to the concerned stakeholders, whose livelihood depends on this annual mechanism of ensuring ferrying of fruits to various fruit markets of the country in record time as the product is perishable and could decay in case of inordinate delay.
It is good that the Chief Secretary has stressed on making a comprehensive plan for smooth movement of the aforesaid vehicles loaded with fruits to further reduce the travel time for perishable items but what is necessary in this case is a universal plan devoid of drawbacks and dearth, which automatically should come into play as and when the fruit season starts because every time making such plans afresh is not at all advisable because it takes time leading to losses to the growers of fruits and also the traders who want the travel time between cutting of fruits and reaching the markets to be reduced to an optimal level.
It is good that this time, the Chief Secretary has asked for marking the fruit-laden trucks with specially designed stickers for identification and giving unhindered access to reach the Mandis outside so that the growers don’t suffer any losses but what is the need of the time is that all such measures should be made a regular feature to ensure smooth passage of fruit laden trucks every season.
