Milk Producers Needs Special Price
The Coimbatore District Milk Producers Welfare Association has urged the District Collector and Special Officer of the Coimbatore District Co-operative Milk Producers Union to provide special incentive in procurement price to the dairy farmers during the dry season. Patron S.R. Rajagopal and secretary K.S. Balachandar, in a memorandum, said that the demand for milk was high in Kerala. As there was huge gap between the demand and availability, Kerala was sourcing milk from neighbouring States even at a higher price.There was huge gap between the demand and availability
As a result, milk producers in Coimbatore were not willing to sell milk at a lesser price to the co-operative union. For the last three years, the Coimbatore union was netting profit ranging from Rs. 2 crore to Rs. 3 crore on an average and given the recent hike in the milk price, the profit margin was likely to even double. Hence in exercise of the special powers delegated to the unions in 2000, the association urged the Collector to provide special incentive in procurement price for the period from October to August (considered the dry period wherein milk production was expected to decline).
The association suggested that an additional Re 1 per litre could be provided for the milk procured from October to March and 50 paise per litre from April to August. They sought the payment to be disbursed with retrospective effect from 2006-07. They also demanded adulteration detection kits for milk chilling plants, village milk procurement centres and co-operative unions. While procuring milk from dairy farmers the unions were subjecting the milk to thorough quality checks.
Similarly, even the milk sold by private firms should be checked and stringent action initiated against deterioration in standards. The memorandum also pleaded job permanency and time scale pay for 2,000 odd employees in the village milk procurement centres who were working on consolidated pay for the last 10 years. For filling up the vacancies in the milk producers union, priority could be accorded to skilled workers employed on temporary basis in village milk producers associations and procurement centres. They also appealed to the State Government to bring in the Central Model Co-operative Act as legislation for conducting elections to the co-operative milk unions.
31.03.2008.
