Farmers return disappointed

Kildeep Chauhan

Tribune News Service

Shimla April 27

Even as farmers welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s appeal that they should avail the PM Fasal Bima Yojna and irrigation scheme, they felt disappointed as he did not announce any big incentive for them. The Prime Minister was mum on increasing import duty on foreign apple to protect farmers of region, they commented.

A large number of farmers had assembled here to welcome Prime Minister with the hope that he would make some announcement on protecting the apple farmers of Himachal, Uttarakhand, Jammu and Kashmir, major apple producing states in North India by increasing import duty on foreign apple being dumped in domestic markets by SAPTA and other countries.

The Prime Minister made an impressive roadshow on The Mall and got cheers from the huge crowds.

The Prime Minister said that on the direction of Central government, soft drink companies were including five per cent fruit juice in the soft drinks.

“We had hoped that the Prime Minister would say something about apple to make it a special category fruit”, they said after the rally. “Nothing of the sort happened. Import of foreign apple from the USA, Chile, China, Iran and other countries is hitting domestic markets and no protective measures for farmers are being taken by the Centre”, said Prakash Thakur, an apple farmer from Kotgarh.