Thank God that the Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has finally woken up from deep slumber and has urged Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to send special trains to the Valley to carry essential goods and transport fruit to markets across the country.
It is over one week that the Jammu Srinagar stretch of National Highway 44 has been shut due to landslides and other disruptions on account of weather vagaries but despite having prior knowledge about delay in the reopening of the sole route connecting Valley to the rest of the country, the chief minister took over seven days to make an appeal to the railways ministry for providing alternative services to ensure supply of essential goods to valley and transport of fruits out of Kashmir for various destinations across the country as goods trains feasibility has already being checked after a train carrying cement from Punjab had reached Kashmir without any difficulty.
As far as the railways ministry is concerned, the people at helm should consider the emergent situation especially with regard to start of peak fruit season in the valley and every single day lost in transporting fruits out of Kashmir is crucial as it amounts to losses of crores of rupees besides affecting the livelihood of people associated with the trade.
As chugging of trains is possible at this hour of crisis, there is no point in wasting even a jiffy in starting the services as all the entities including the fruit traders are looking for alternative arrangement to ensure that their produce is reached in the markets because orchardists, fruit wholesalers, labour class and all the well wishers of Kashmir know it better that fruits especially apples bring prosperity in Kashmir and the people cannot afford such losses on account of road closure that too when a viable alternative is ready to serve the purpose.
Considering the gravity of the situation as the fruits plucked and picked will not wait and will become useless in coming days, the chief minister should meet PM Narendra Modi and divulge about the seriousness of the issue as Kashmir cannot afford this loss.
A customary appeal to railways minister in this context is insufficient because with railways option in hand, there is no point in allowing the fruit or other perishable entities to become useless when trains can do the needful to transport things to desired locations.
There is still time left for rectifying the things therefore the concerned quarters should take the call and start ‘ferrying’ fruits out of J&K and bring the essentials for alleviating the miseries of people stuck in miseries due to natural calamity by trains as already much time has been wasted and a crisis is looming large.
