Shimla, August 11(PTI) Progressive apple grower and senior BJP leader Chetan Bragta on Tuesday accused the Himachal Pradesh government of harassing apple growers in the state by issuing notices to them, “as if they were criminals”.
Bragta, who submitted a memorandum on issues facing the apple growers to Governor Kavinder Gupta on Tuesday, cautioned that the community would be forced to hit the streets if their matters are not addressed.
The apple growers are already facing the impact of low production, climate change, adverse weather conditions and rising input costs, but instead of mitigating their woes, the government is issuing them notices and asking for Aadhaar cards, documents and bank statements, Bragta alleged in a statement, and asked whether they are “criminals”.
The Congress had promised during the 2022 state polls that the apple growers would fix the price of their produce but even after winning a large number of seats in the apple growing areas, the government went back on its promise, Bragta alleged.
He also claimed that notices are being served to the growers who sold more than 100 bags of apples to the procurement agencies in 2025, asking them to submit documents like ‘Aadhaar cards, ‘jamabandi’, ‘tatima’ and bank statements for verification.
“About 45,000 apple growers sold their produce to the procurement agencies in 2025, including 7,000 who sold more than 100 bags. Why was the verification process not carried out then?” Bragta asked, claiming that notices were not being issued to the “influential” growers.
“If the government suspected some irregularities in procurement, why was it targeting the growers and not investigating the role of the HPMC, the main procurement agency,” he asked.
The BJP leader demanded an impartial probe into the entire chain of procurement, including destroying rotten apples purchased under the market intervention scheme (MIS) for apples. PTI BPL ARI ARI
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