HYDERABAD: Minister for Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development, T Srinivas Yadav, was on the receiving end of the stick in the State Assembly, during the Question Hour, when a member from his own party cornered him repeatedly and disputed his claim about effective functioning of government-run Vijaya Dairy.
The State Assembly, which normally witnesses a slinging match between treasury benches and opposition parties, on Wednesday became a platform for a verbal duel between the minister and TRS member C Ramesh, much to the bewilderment of other members.
Earlier, minister Srinivas Yadav said the state government proposed to modernise and expand Vijaya Dairy. An amount of `13.55 crore was allocated for dairy development in the state budge for 2017-18.
Answering to supplementary questions from members mostly belonging to TRS, Srinivas Yadav blamed the erstwhile governments in the undivided Andhra Pradesh state for neglecting the government-run dairy due to some alleged understanding and agreement with certain private dairies.
Minister said that earlier Vijaya Dairy could procure only one lakh litres of milk but now due to incentives being offered by state to farmers, the milk procurement has gone to 4.5 lakh litres.
TRS member C Ramesh disputed over the claim: “Farmers are availing the incentives. But, they are still supplying milk to private dairies. Why is government neglecting development of cooperative milk societies?”