Fruit growers will stage demonstrations in the four major apple producing districts on August 1 against the failure of commission agents (arhtias) to pay the growers to clear the pending payments to farmers amounting to over Rs 15 crore for the last year.
The protest being jointly organised by the Himachal Kisan Sabha and the State Seb Utpadak Sangh will be held right down to block level in Shimla, Kinnaur, Kullu and Mandi districts. Their main grievance is that the government policies are being tailor-made for corporate sectors, which have been given various incentives to undertake marketing of farm produce and the interests of the growers are being neglected.
Rakesh Singha, president of the sangh, said his organisation would publish the list all the commission agents who had failed to pay the growers if the outstanding amounts were not cleared by them with 12 per cent interest by August 7. The growers would boycott those whose name appeared in the list.
He also took an exception to the new practice introduced by the commission agents by paying 40 per cent less for the small size apple.
He said it was nothing but a ploy to exploit the growers. It was illegal as fruit was sold in the retail market by weight.
He also opposed the increase in the road tax from Rs 2 to Rs 5 per box at a time when the cost of production had gone up by 23 to 35 per cent and the prices had dwindled by 30 per cent.
The opening of marketing sector to private companies had only made the matters worse. It had not helped the cause of the growers at all. He alleged that the government had given up the plan to introduce universal packing carton of 20 kg capacity under pressure from commission agents who gained if more fruit was packed in the carton. The growers were packing up to 28 kg of fruit and the beneficiaries were the commission agents, he alleged.
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