Apple farmers seek govt help for anti-hail guns

Kuldeep Chauhan 

Tribune News Service

Shimla, April 21

Apple farmers, led by Chief Whip and Jubbal and Kotkhai legislator Narendra Bragta,   have urged Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur   to provide assistance for operating anti-hail guns. 

The farmers are facing problems in operating these guns due to lack of trained operators and funds.  “We have spent more than Rs 70 lakh on each anti-hail gun which was set up at Baghi, Ratnari, Kalbog, Mahasu and Maraog three years ago. But we don’t have technical operators, spare parts and gas cylinder to operate these,” the farmers told the Chief Minister. 

The recent hailstorm wreaked havoc to fruit crops  in Narkanda, causing losses in excess of over Rs  5 crore. 

Though the previous Congress government had opposed the guns  on the ground that  the system was not a proven technology, Virbhadra Singh-led Congress regime had given 80 per cent subsidy on this to farmers.

 Unfazed by the Congress opposition,  Bragta,  the Horticulture Minister, who had installed the anti-hail guns at Baraonghat, Deorighat and Batargalu for the first time in 2011, told The Tribune that the guns needed trained operators, funds for gas cylinder  and spare parts to maintain the system.  

The Chief Minister had assured help but due to the code of conduct, the farmers would have to wait, he added.