Residents in Ladakh unable to get hold of fresh fruits and vegetables due to new govt diktat

It is around half past nine in the morning. A smattering of local residents — both men and women — in Kargil town have just shown up at a marketplace. They are frantically trying to line up in two separate queues in front of a vegetable store. A few minutes later, when the store opens, the queue has turned long and serpentine.

The authorities order rationing of vegetables in Ladakh during the winter as the region remains out of bounds due to heavy snowfall, and it becomes rather difficult to ferry fresh fruits and vegetables to the area.

This year, however, the rationing has been made even more strict after the government ordered that vegetables and fruits would only b sold to holders of the ration card.

“Earlier, one could buy the limited supply of vegetables and fruits more or less on daily basis. Now you have to wait for at least two weeks once you have bought a bag full of vegetables weighing 5 kg", said Mohammad Hussain, a local resident.

Ladakh became a Union Territory after the Narendra Modi-led BJP government scrapped the constitutional autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir last year and broke it up into two federally controlled territories in a sudden move.

While some residents in Buddhist-dominated Leh hailed the decision, the move was severely criticised by people in Muslim majority Kargil district.

The socio-religious and local political organisations formed a committee called Joint Action Committee, and gave a strike call against the unceremonious move of the right wing government, spurring the authorities to impose section 144 to maintain law and order.

"There was a near-total lockdown for nearly ten days. Even people hit the streets and attempted to defy the section 144," says Mohammad Ali Waziri, a local journalist and editor.

The government later launched an ad blitz to generate awareness among the local populace about the ‘benefits’ of abrogation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. More or less all the leading English and Urdu newspapers in Jammu and Kashmir were plastered with full-page advertisements explaining the ‘advantages’ of the move.

"We have not been benefited in any way. Even now we have to wait for hours in serpentine queues to buy the vegetables", says Mohammad Ismail, another local resident.

The government, the residents say, had made tall claims about making a copious supply of essentials available during the winter, but to no avail.

The Department of Cooperatives has thus far made the stock available at three places — Main Market, Daroo and Damathang playfield. All three places are located within a 2km radius. The people living in far off places like Drass and Sankoo have to travel for hours amidst the freezing cold to Kargil town to buy the vegetables.

"It takes a full day to fetch the vegetables from Kargil town. Last time I set out from my home nearly at the crack of dawn and at around 2 pm I was able to buy 5 kg of vegetables", said a resident from Drass, some 65 kms from Kargil.

He added that the government could have easily shipped the vegetable and fresh fruits at few far off places as well.

The residents of Zanskar, some 240 kms from Kargil town, complained that authorities were hardly making any arrangement for making vegetables or fruits available in the area.

The area, with a population of 13,849, remains cut off from the rest of Ladakh for close to six months due to heavy and frequent snowfall. Hence, people stockpile essentials by the end of October. However, it is not possible for them to store the seasonal vegetables and fruits.

"We largely bank on pulses and rice during the winters. The vegetables and fruits are rarely consumed during six month long winters," said Skalzang Wangyal, former councillor of of Ladakh Administrative Hill Development Council (LAHDC), Kargil.

Local residents believe that during the winter, the government could transport the essentials including fruits and vegetables by special choppers.

"The government could ferry the supply by air to the inaccessible areas like Zanskar. Many a times, in the past, it has sent the supply of vegetables and fruits during the winter here. But now the area is being ignored," said a resident of Zanskar over phone.

He added that the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories had no way helped the local populace to alleviating their troubles.

The predicament of the floating population in Kargil is unmatched. A plethora of non-local workers and tourists currently putting up in the area are unable to taste fresh fruits or vegetables for want of a ration card.

"We are not able to buy any vegetables let alone the fruits. The government must exempt us from procuring the vegetables on ration cards," said a band of non-local drivers.