KOZHIKODE/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a move to address the ongoing crisis in Milma, the state government has decided to supply surplus milk with Milma to the anganwadi children and migrant labourers, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced on Wednesday. The government is already supplying food to the children at their homes after the closure of anganwadis.
The chief minister thanked Tamil Nadu government for accepting his request to help convert the surplus milk into powder. Aavin, the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation, has allowed Milma to make use of a factory at Erode where 50,000 litres of milk can be converted into powder a day. Tamil Nadu has also informed that it would try to help more in this regard, Pinarayi said.
The CM said Milma’s daily surplus was 1,80,000 litres. The cooperative will collect more milk from Thursday. He urged the people to buy more milk to help the dairy farmers. The chief minister said Consumerfed will sell Milma products through its retail outlets. Following talks with Tamil Nadu, Malabar Regional Co-operative Milk Producers Union has decided to procure 70 per cent of the milk from societies from Thursday. The milk will be collected in the morning.
Due to unsold stock and unwillingness of Tamil Nadu plants to take milk to convert it into milk powder, Milma had plunged into a crisis which resulted in the non-procurement of milk on Wednesday. On March 24 also, Milma did not procure milk from societies owing to the mounting stock. “Now, the Tamil Nadu government has agreed to take the maximum quantity of milk to convert it into milk powder. Besides, arrangements have been made to send milk to Gundur in Andhra Pradesh,” said Milma Malabar regional union managing director Vijayakumaran K M.