Himachal Govt U-turn: No apple for schoolkids, patients

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, August 29

The government’s plan to provide apple in mid-day meals, anganwadis and hospitals will not fructify. The idea has been dropped as hurriedly as it was announced. Ahead of the apple harvest season, Horticulture Minister Mahender Singh had announced that the government was considering procuring apple for midday meals and hospitalised patients to increase the domestic consumption of the fruit.

The reason

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The government had mooted the plan as it was expecting a bumper yield this time. The crop yield, however, isn’t as much as was being expected, so the idea has been dropped. Govt official

“The idea had come up as the government was expecting a bumper yield this time. The crop, however, isn’t as much as was being expected, so the idea has been dropped,” said a senior government official.

“Also, the procurement and distribution process is quite cumbersome. It will take some time to work it out. So, it won’t happen this year, at least,” he said.

Incidentally, the minister had also spoken about providing small apple packings in hotels as well to enhance the domestic consumption. “We are also thinking of making the fruit available in small packing of 2-6 kg for sale at hotels. This will not only help growers, but also benefit the tourists as they will get good quality fruit at reasonable prices. We will talk to hoteliers soon,” the minister had said. This plan, too, is unlikely to materialise.

Apple growers, who were skeptical about the plan right from the time it was announced, said dropping the plan without even working on it showed the non-seriousness of the government.

“The government had announced the plan on its own, apple growers had not even asked for it,” said Ashutosh Chauhan, vice-president of the Progressive Growers’ Association.

“It was a good plan.

Apart from providing nutritious fruit to schoolchildren and patients, it would have opened up a new avenue for the consumption of fruit. Apart from implementing it here, the government could have tried to include apple in the mid-day meals of the neighbouring states,” he said, adding that it was unfortunate that the government did not pursue it seriously.