By IANS
Thiruvananthapuram : The Congress party’s farmers wing in Kerala Monday accused Dairy Development Minister C. Divakaran of attempting to ruin the Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Milma) by welcoming multinational firms into the state.
“The whole of Kerala saw Divakaran threatening Milma officials at a discussion on shortage of milk in Kerala on Saturday. He said that they (government) would look beyond Milma if they can’t ensure regular supply of milk. This clearly indicates that steps have begun to (be taken to) ensure a smooth entry of multinationals like Reliance,” farmers’ wing president Lal Varges Kalpakavadi told reporters here.
Milma has been demanding better prices and more benefits to dairy farmers if milk production was to be increased since it was running at a loss. Milma has already accumulated a loss of Rs.300 million.
It had asked the government to release Rs.170 million, as the daily loss came to Rs.600,000. Milma also wants the selling price of milk to be increased to Rs.20 per litre or give a subsidy of Rs.3 per litre.
Divakaran lashed out at Milma officials during Saturday’s meet, saying that though the government had increased the price twice, there had been no increase in procurement.
“The minister doesn’t even know that the role of Milma is distribution and not production,” said Kalpakavadi, president of the Kerala Pradesh Karshaka Congress Committee.
“He has three different departments under him that have a role in increasing the production of milk. Nothing has been done by those departments and we have serious doubts that this is being done to help multinationals,” Kalpakavadi said.
Currently, Kerala faces a milk shortage of 300,000 litres per day, forcing Milma to buy from neighbouring Karnataka.