new delhi, Sept 16
The valley-based political parties that shared power with the BJP till few months before the abrogation of Article 370, are trying to corner Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on the issue of losses being caused to the apple growers whose produce is rotting due to the long-stretched closure of the Srinagar-Jammu highway due to landslides triggered by flash floods.
Hundreds of apple-laden trucks on their way to Delhi and other markets are stranded on the highway at multiple places, as some bridges and roads have been washed away. Landslides on 26 August at many places have badly damaged the road.
The opposition is using this opportunity to put Omar on the mat, although he has made several trips to oversee early restoration of the highway, even though it is not under his control and has been built by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI).
Omar spoke to Union Minister Nitin Gadkari yesterday and today participated in a high-level virtual meeting that was chaired by Gadkari to review the status of restoration of the highway. Gadkari assured the Chief Minister that his concerns would be addressed.
Meanwhile, the highway was partially restored this morning for light motor vehicles.
However, leaders of certain Kashmir-based political parties were rallying around Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha instead of discussing the issue with the chief minister of a duly elected government.
PDP leader and daughter of former CM Mehbooba Mufti, Iltija Mufti, this morning met the LG and “appraised him of the severe crisis crippling J&K’s apple industry owing to the shutdown of the highway”. “He kindly assured to expedite smooth movement of trucks on the National Highway to avoid further losses”, Iltija wrote on X.
Reacting to her meeting with LG, the state spokesman of ruling National Conference, Imran Nabi Dar said on X; “This woman has the gall to slam the elected government headed by Omar Abdullah for highway mismanagement, lead protests against him and demand his resignation, only to brazenly petition the LG Manoj Sinha for highway restoration”. “Isn’t this height of hypocrisy….”, he added.
People’s Conference chief and MLA, Sajad Lone, has also criticised Omar and wrote on X, “It takes hundreds of crores of losses in terms of rotting apples to wake up a wandering CM to actually issue a statement. Apple industry is the backbone of Kashmiri economy”.
It is worth mentioning that the mountains that were cut for the four-laning of the highway have become unstable, causing frequent landslides that result in the closure of the road for traffic. Several new landslides and shooting stone spots have been created on the 250 kms highway after its widening by the NHAI.
Inconvenience to truckers and motorists can be visualised from the fact that the highway remained shut for about 58 days in 2023 and 54 days in 2019. It remained closed for 47 days in 2020 and 41 days in 2022. Such closures are badly hitting the economy of J&K.
