Blocked Kullu roads worry agriculturists

Abhinav Vashisht

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Kullu, September 3

Agriculturists in many rural areas of the district are worried as a few roads there are still blocked, making it difficult for them to transport their produce to marketing yards.

The fruits and vegetables are either rotting in the orchards or the farmers are having to incur heavy expenses to transport these, using manual labour or mules etc.

Many link roads in the Banjar valley, Sainj valley, Lug valley and Ujhi valley were still closed after they were blocked due to torrential rains last month.

Kullu DC Ashutosh Garg said 12 rural roads were still blocked and repair work was underway on a war footing to restore these roads as soon as possible to facilitate the transport of the produce.

Farmers of many villages in Shainshar panchayat of the Sainj valley are not plucking apples from their orchards. They said they were unable to transport their produce due to the poor condition of the roads. They added that the labourers were demanding Rs 1,500 per carton to ferry it from Shainshar to Ropa. The farmers said this would result in huge losses for them. Apart from this, farmers of Tung, Singhan, Dhartha, Khain, Bajahara, Shili Sari, Manhara and Chanahidi wards have also chosen not to pluck apples from trees. They said more than half of their produce has gone rotten on the trees. The farmers urged the government to expedite the restoration of roads as their produce was the only source of income for them to bear the expenses for the entire year.

The agriculturists said their vegetables had gone rotten in the fields as they were unable to get these to the market because of the blocked roads.