Dairy Farmers’ Decision to Hike Milk Rates Gets Thumbs Down

Ludhiana: The Milk Consumer Association, one of the biggest body of milk suppliers from Ludhiana, has opened front against the dairy farmers decision to hike the rates of milk by Rs 5-6 per litre from June 11. The milk consumers association led by its president N K Sharma organised a meeting of all members at Chander Nagar on Tuesday and it was decided to stage a protest on June 11 against the hike in prices of milk. According to milk suppliers, if the rates are hiked by the milk producers, then the entire business of the suppliers and even farmers will be wiped off because the hike will lead to a huge difference of rates between milk of Verka and that of private diary farmers.

Giving more information, Sharma, said, “Taking an illogical step, the Dairy Farmers Association, which comprises the milk producers, has decided to hike the rates per litre of milk by Rs 5-6, which is a huge setback for the end consumer and also for us. At this point of time when people are so fund starved and do not even have money to manage their day to day expenses, how will they be able to cope up with the rising rates of milk, which is essential and daily use commodity.”

“On Tuesday, close to 300 milk suppliers joined our meeting and it was decided that we will strongly oppose this move of the dairy farmers and taking one step in this direction we have decided to meet the deputy commissioner, Ludhiana, on Wednesday and give him memorandum of our demands. We are also going to meet Ludhiana mayor and other stakeholders to make them understand about the sensitivity of this matter and seek their help in blocking the move of the dairy farmers. But if everything fails, we will protest against the dairy farmers’ decision on June 11, which is the deadline given by them to hike the rates,” he said.

According to Krishan Kumar, a leading milk supplier of the city, “As of now, the rate of milk being sold by Verka is between Rs 50 per litre, while the milk being sold by Verka is between Rs 50 per litre, while the milk being supplied by us to the consumers, which is being sourced from dairy farmers is being sold at Rs 58 per litre, which covers all our expenditure of delivery and little margin as well. If the dairy farmers go ahead with their decision to hike the rates of milk by Rs 5-6 per litre, then the rate per litre of milk for the consumer will reach Rs 63, which will be costlier by almost Rs. 12-13 per litre as compared to the milk being sold by Verka. If this situation occurs, then who will buy the milk being supplied by us. Moreover, at this juncture when even a single rupee matters in rising inflation, how will the end consumers be able to cope up with the increase.”

Other office-bearers of the Milk Consumer Association who were present in the meeting included Pargat Singh, Jatin Sehgal, Harsh Grewal, Tejinder Singh, Pradeep Chawla and Ravinder Sehgal.

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Source: The article is extracted from The Times of India, June 10, 2020.