Srinagar, April 14 (KMS): In occupied Kashmir, the fruit growers, who are not satisfied with recent rent hike by the Indian defence ministry, have asked government of India and the puppet administration not to acquire horticulture land for any purposes.

With fruit production static, the growers fear that acquiring of the horticulture land will further reduce the fruit production in the occupied territory.

It is worth to mention that occupied Kashmir has around 2.75 lakh hectares of land under the horticulture with one million families directly dependent on it. The major portion of this land is used for the cultivation of fresh fruits especially apples.

President, Kashmir Fruit Growers and Dealers Association, Ghulam Rasool Butt said that in Western countries, the government has already banned use of horticulture land for any official purposes, adding similar ban should be imposed in here as well. "If steps are not taken, time will come when we will lose major portion of our orchards," he added.
 
Ghulam Rasool pointed out that in the last two decades, the growers have lost thousands of kanals of horticulture land either to the puppet administration or to Indian troops, adding, "Alone, 11,000 kanals of orchard land is under illegal occupation of the troops, which has been forcibly taken from the growers since 1989. The growers who were asking for vacation of their land are now being asked to take rent.

"We have lost thousands of apple trees to dry spell that continued from 1998 to 2004. Also, the Indian troops axed all the trees in the orchards soon after they forcibly took them over." Butt said, adding, "The trend needs to be stopped somewhere."