Monday, October 31, 2011

CM rules out hike in milk procurement price, stir on

CHENNAI: As the milk farmers' agitation in the state entered the seventh day, chief minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday hinted that it would not be possible to go in for another hike in milk procurement price as it would affect the consumers.
He said during the DMK regime, though the government had hiked the procurement price four times, the sale price was not increased. "If we continue to increase the procurement price, the burden will fall on the consumers," he said.
Dairy farmers launched an indefinite strike from February 7 demanding higher procurement price from the state-owned Aavin. The stir has been intense in Erode district. Farmers have been blocking roads with their cattle and pouring the milk on the streets, disrupting supplies to state-owned Aavin.
The state government had recently increased the procurement price of cow's milk to Rs 6.60 per litre and that of buffalow milk to Rs 12.70 per litre.
On Sunday morning, revenue officials shut down three private dairies at Chennimalai, Kannirowther kulam and Manalmedu in Erode and two farms in neighbouring Sithode which were functioning without necessary licences.
"We sealed the dairies following instructions from the Dairy Development Commissioner as they had not obtained necessary licences," a revenue official said. These dairies were targetted because they were procuring milk from the striking farmers and obstructing supplies to the Aavin, official sources said.
However, Aavin struggled hard to maintain their regular supplies to customers in Erode. Farmers supplied just 58,000 litres of milk to Aavin, which is- just one-fourth of the normal procurement.
Aavin used to get about 2.1 lakh litres of milk from 25,000 farmers daily. About one lakh litres are dispatched to Chennai, while 1.2 lakh litres are suppled in Erode district. "We are managing to maintain the supplies with our existing stocks. There will be no shortage of milk. We are taking all steps to ensure proper supply tomorrow (Monday ) too," the Erode Aavin general manager, D Rajarajan said.
An Aavin official in Chennai denied reports that due to the demand for milk, Aavin is procurring three lakh litres milk from neighbouring Karnataka.
More than 100 milk producers from the villages of Usilampatti and its surroundings, led by K S Subburaj, joint general secretary of the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers union, staged a demonstration and blocked the Theni-Madurai highway, on Sunday morning disrupting traffic for more than an hour. Milk producers also staged similar protests in various southern districts in Tenkasi in Tirunelveli district. Meanwhile, police sources said more then 3,500 protesters were arrested across the state on Sunday.

1 comment:

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