<span style="color: #222222;">The Union Minister of State for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Kailash Choudhary who was on two day visit to Shopian in south Kashmir on Friday visited Fruit & Vegetable Mandi at Agler in Shopian and interacted with the Fruit Growers Association, Progressive Orchardists and farmers there.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Addressing the gathering, Kailash Choudhary expressed his gratitude for being among the people of Shopian. He termed Kashmir as a paradise on earth and said that the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making all efforts to keep its essence intact by providing overall development of the areas especially the hilly district of Shopian.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">He said that all the requests, issues and grievances projected by the orchardists of Shopian have been taken note of and the same would be taken up at Union level as well as with Lieutenant Governor for redressal. He assured that hilly tourism, eco-tourism and horticulture tourism will be taken up on priority.</span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Kailash said that the damage caused due to the recent snowfall to the orchards, the orchardists would get compensation against the damage after proper survey of damaged apple orchards by a team of revenue officers of the district.</span>