Kuldeep Rathore welcomed decision of SC to stop the cutting of apple trees on government land

All India Congress Committee spokesperson Kuldeep Singh Rathore, MLA from Theog, while expressing concern over the natural calamities, cloud bursts and floods in the state, said that somewhere tampering with nature, unscientific digging of land, illegal mining and excessive cutting of trees can also be considered the reason for this. However, he clarified that all this has not happened only recently, for the last several years, development works in the state, road construction, land erosion for building construction, four lane construction in the state can also be considered the reason for this disaster.
Addressing a press conference here today, Kuldeep Singh Rathore said that the natural disasters like cloudburst and floods occurring every year in the state are very sad. Hundreds of people are dying in this and movable and immovable property worth thousands of crores is being destroyed. He said that there is a need to make some rules and long term plans to prevent this disaster and this should be considered in time. He said that this should also be discussed in the assembly and there is a need to make concrete rules to reduce interference with nature.
Rathore said that the state government is very sensitive towards dealing with natural disasters. Every possible help is being provided to the affected people. The state government has announced a relief manual. He expressed his gratitude to the state cabinet including the Chief Minister for this. He said that it should be ensured that the relief reaches the eligible people.

Kuldeep Singh Rathore welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court to stop the cutting of apple trees on government land on the orders of the state High Court. He said that although he is against any kind of illegal encroachment on government land, but cutting them at a time when those trees had fruits was not right. He said that strict action should be taken against those forest officials for illegal encroachment, due to whose negligence even orchards were set up after illegal encroachment on forest land. He said that any kind of illegal encroachment or any illegal mining or forest cutting cannot be tolerated under any circumstances. To stop this, accountability of the concerned officials should be fixed.

Kuldeep Singh Rathore has expressed concern over not increasing the import duty on apples coming from abroad. He has said that he has also written a letter to the Union Commerce Minister in this regard but he has not received any information on it yet. He said that he has also sent a copy of it to all the BJP MPs of the state and he is happy that two MPs have raised this issue before the Parliament.
Rathore said that America is trying to reduce the import duty on apples from India. If this happens, it will have an adverse effect on apple horticulture in the country including Himachal, Kashmir, Uttarakhand. He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should fulfill the promise he made to the horticulturists of the state to protect their interests and increase the import duty and should not succumb to any pressure from America, because Trump’s policies are anti-India.
Rathore said that BJP is trying to mislead the orchardists on MIP. He said that although it has no legal recognition, the state BJP leaders had claimed in the press that the central government had talked about increasing the MIP on apples from 50 to 80 rupees, whereas the central government has clarified in the Parliament that the government does not have any such proposal. He said that it is clear from this that BJP is misleading the orchardists of the state.