RTI reveals mismatch in apple procurement under MIS

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 22

Even as the Central government and the authorities in Jammu and Kashmir had launched a market intervention scheme (MIS) with much fanfare to buy apples directly from the growers in Kashmir soon after the Article 370 was abrogated and state downgraded to a Union Territory, an application under the Right to Information has revealed a mismatch in figures furnished by the Centre to the Parliament and the Supreme Court about the actual quantity of the apple procured.

The figures that the Centre as well as the J&K government furnished first to the Supreme Court and then twice to Parliament do not match with the data that the Department of Agriculture Cooperation and Farmers Welfare has now supplied under the RTI Act.

According to the reply furnished by the first appellant authority (FAA) of the Department of Agriculture Cooperation (DAC) to the RTI filed by Venkatesh Nayak on November 1, 2019, a total of 1,56,120.470 quintals of apples had been bought during the 2019-2020 season at a cost of Rs 6,955.59 lakh from the Apple growers in Kashmir under the MIS.

When converted this amounts to 7,642.907MT of apples purchased at a cost of Rs 69.55 crore. A total of 1,054,169 boxes containing three grades of apples — Delicious, American and Maharaji, were dispatched during this season till January 30, 2020 from five districts under the Market Intervention Scheme. These five districts are: Anantnag, Srinagar, Sopore, Shopian and Kulgam.

However, this figure obtained through RTI differs from the figures furnished by the Central Government before the Parliament.

In November 2019, Lok Sabha was told, as of November 12, 2019, 7,940MT of apples had been purchased under the MIS from apple growers in Kashmir.

Later, in response to another question raised in the Lok Sabha on February 4, 2020 during the budget session, the government replied that it had purchased 15,769.38MT of apples at a cost of Rs 70.45 crore under this scheme, revealing a huge discrepancy in the figures tabled in the Parliament and those furnished under the RTI.

“Even if one were to reason that the government mixed up quintals with metric tonnes while replying in February, 2020, the issue is not resolved. The reply given in November 2019 of 7,940 metric tonnes is much higher than the figure of 7,642 metric tonnes given under RTI”, said Nayak, who is the programme head of the Access to Information Programme at Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, while pointing out the huge discrepancy in the figures about apple procurement from the Valley.

He also said the government of J&K in its affidavit to the Supreme Court about apple procurement last year in the Anuradha Bhasin case claimed that NAFED procured 8,960MT of apples during the same season at a cost of Rs 38 crore under the MIS.

What is MIS & Target of NAFED