Himachal Apples will be sold in universal cartons from next year: Jagat Singh Negi

Himachal Pradesh  Horticulture Minister Jagat Singh Negi announced today that apples will be sold in universal cartons from next year.

He was replying to a discussion brought by Congress MLA Kuldeep Singh Rathore in the house on Saturday.

The Horticulture Minister announced that apples will be sold in universal cartons in Himachal from next year. This rule will be fully implemented. 

The minister appreciated the discussion on the issue of the Universal carton and selling of apples on the basis of weight and said that the state government has to defer the decision of implementation of the Universal carton.

Telescopic cartons will be completely banned and will be phased out of apple packing. He said that the state government has decided to sell apples on a kilo basis this year. The gardeners have benefited from this

He said that a number of Apple Growers and traders have surplus stocks of telescopic cartons therefore government decided to allow the sell of apples in telescopic cartons and crates with weight.

He said that apples would be sold according to weight in other states also and an issue has been raised with other state governments of the country. If other states do not implement it, then the Himachal government would go to the local High Court and fight. 

This time people have gotten higher rates. He said that even outside Himachal, correspondence is being made with other states to sell apples by weight. 

He said that the farmers have benefited from selling apples by weight. Gardeners have received prices up to Rs 4000 per box.

 22 lakh fine imposed on brokers Jagat Negi said that Theog MLA Kuldeep Rathore had refuted the allegations in which Rathore had said that this time the decision to sell apples by weight could not be strictly implemented. 

He said that apples are sold by weight in all the markets. A fine of Rs 22 lakh has been imposed on the brokers who ignored these rules.

 He said that along with APMC, Revenue Department officials were also put on duty to implement this decision so that the rule could be strictly implemented.

 He said that initially there was a problem because the brokers were opposing it, but now the gardeners are also happy with the apples being sold by weight.

 Horticulture Minister Jagat Negi said that he pointed out the difference in the carton. He said that telescopic cartons are in two pieces. 30 to 35 kg of apples can be filled in it. The commission agents want to fill as many apples as possible. Therefore the government had imposed a condition of 24 kg per box. Universal cartons will now be implemented from next season. It is a single piece. Around 23 kg of apples will be filled in it.

Early raising this issue under rule 61 in the assembly Theog MLA Kuldeep Rathore demanded the implementation of a universal carton. This would end the confusion among gardeners. He said that this time the government has taken a historic decision by deciding to sell apples on the basis of kilos.

” Besides, a condition of packing of 24 kg was also imposed, but this decision was not strictly implemented. He said that this matter is related to thousands of gardeners of the state. The government should make strict rules on this.” he said.

 Apple states suffered losses due to the G-20

 The Horticulture Minister said that just a few days ago the G-20 conference was organized. More than Rs 4 thousand crores have been spent on this. 

Due to its event, apple-producing states including Himachal, Jammu Kashmir, and Uttarakhand suffered huge losses. He said that the import duty on apples, which was earlier 75 percent, was reduced to 50 percent by the Central Government.

 After the G-20 conference, it is being heard that now America has been given special status. If 15 percent import duty is imposed then Washington’s Apple will come to India. Apple-producing states will be devastated.

 He said that when Prime Minister Narendra Modi had come to Hamirpur during the elections, he had talked about increasing the import duty. 

Now they have turned against it. This is an increased loss for the Apple states.