A meeting to discuss the distribution of milk to anganwadis and schools following a glut in milk procurement in the State has been convened on Friday, said Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T B Jayachandra.
Briefing reporters after the Cabinet meeting, he said the milk procurement was around 54 lakh litres whereas the sale touches 34 lakh litres. Still there is an excess of 20 lakh litres. The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) has a capacity to convert 10 lakh litres of milk into powder. Another four to five lakh litres are sold to other States, he noted.
Jayachandra said the KMF incurs a loss of Rs 6 per kg if one litre of milk is converted into powder. This means, it has to suffer a loss of Rs 35 crore to Rs 40 crore per year for converting around 6 lakh litres of milk into powder. Besides, the demand for milk powder is less, he stated.
In view of this, the government has convened a meeting on Friday to see whether it was possible to distribute the excess milk among anganwadis and school children. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would take a final call on this proposal, Jayachandra added.
The minister claimed that the sale of adulterated milk in Bangalore has come down gradually following instructions given to officials of the Food and Civil Supplies Department to check the quality of milk.
“According to my information, many private dairies have been closed down”, he added.