The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) on Monday said regular milk supply will not be affected by the plan to distribute milk to students from Class 1 to 10 from July 1. Around 150 ml of milk would be distributed to every student.
The KMF estimates the milk requirement of the school scheme to be 7.5 to 9 lakh litres per day.
According to the Education Department, 50, 988,880 students are registered in class 1 to 10 in government and aided schools this year. Based on these figures, the daily requirement comes to about 7.6 lakh litres.
Children from anganwadis are not covered under the scheme. The Federation’s Director (Marketing) Ravi Kumar Kakade told Express that the government will announce a separate scheme for anganwadis in the budget session.
Kakade denied claims that the new proposal was mooted to clear the excess procurement of milk by the KMF.
The Karnataka Milk Federation’s daily procurement of milk has now touched 54 lakh litres, a 4-6 per cent increase compared to last month, he added.
Kakade said the rise in milk procurement cannot be fully attributed to the recent Rs 2 subsidy given by the government; it is because of the change in season.
He said that the supply of milk for the school scheme will not be affected at any cost.
“The new proposal will only be for around 200 days as schools don’t function throughout the year. During the summer, when milk production tends to slow down, children will be having holidays. So it is unlikely that the scheme will be affected,” Kakade said.