Shimla, Feb. 18 -- : With hundreds of crores of unpaid dues, the Himachal Pradesh government is set to make it more stringent to obtain a licence for apple trade by revising the bank guarantee condition, to protect apple growers from fraud.
The government plans to increase the bank guarantee amount so that commission agents and transporters (ladanis) cannot abscond after purchasing apples from orchardists.
Agriculture Minister Chander Kumar, while replying to a question by Congress MLA Kuldeep Singh Rathore, stated this in the State Legislative Assembly on Wednesday that 379 cases of non-payment after apple procurement have been reported in three Agricultural Produce Market Committees (APMCs) of the state.
These include 144 complaints in...