VELLORE: Members of the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers Association (TNMPA) and Tamil Nadu Primary Milk Producers Employees Association (TNPMPEA) affiliated to CITU trade union have resolved to stage statewide demonstrations at 100 centres on August 23. A resolution urging the State government to increase the procurement price of milk was passed during a state-level joint committee meeting of the associations that was held near the Aavin depot at Sathuvachari near here on Thursday.
“When private milk diaries are able to offer a procurement price of Rs 2 more than the price offered by government-run Aavin, why can’t we have the increase from Aavin?” questioned K S Sekar, general secretary, TNMPA.
He pointed out that Aavin has been procuring milk from the farmers at Rs 15.34 per litre of cow milk and Rs 21 per litre of buffalo milk while they are sold at a much higher rate for higher profits. Sekar noted the farmers are forced to seek a price hike of Rs 5 and Rs 8 for cow and buffalo milk owing to exorbitant price hike of cattle feed and fodder.
The association also sought subsidy of Rs 2 for every one-litre milk to meet the mounting price hike of raw materials, on a par with the subsidy given to the milk producers of Kerala, Karnataka and Pondicherry. It urged the State government to pay Rs 1.5 lakh to support the family of deceased milk producers and to increase the salary of all the 24,000 people employed at the PCMPU in Tamil Nadu.