Stir over milk prices set to escalate

Mumbai: The farmers’ agitation over milk prices is all set to escalate as the agitation’s core committee has declared a programme of protest from June 1 with a demand for a hike in milk rates. On June 1, farmers will take their cattle to the tehsil offices all over Maharashtra, and if the government does not agree to their demand, then they will take out a morcha outside the house of the animal husbandry minister on June 5. The state government had tried to give a Rs 3 per litre subsidy to the dairies which produced milk powder, but farmer organisations have called the decision a hollow move.

In the meeting called by the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS)’s Dr Nawale in Lakhganga village of Aurangabad district, it was decided that the core committee of the farmers’ agitation would intensify the stir over milk prices. “Farmers are feeling like orphans in this government. Nobody is even ready to look into the hardship of farmers seriously. They just take names of farmers for votes but behave in the exact opposite fashion,” said MLA Bachchu Kadu, who was present in the meeting.

The Maharashtra government had declared the rate of Rs 27 as per litre for farmers but no dairy is giving that rate. Also, the international rates of milk powder and butter are down substantially. This is pushing dairies to purchase milk at lower rates. To find a way out of this, the state government has come up with the subsidy solution. It has declared a subsidy of Rs 3 per litre to the dairies that produce milk powder. The subsidy comes with a condition of 20 per cent more production of milk powder than March 2018 from that particular dairy.