Capt asks Finance Dept to provide Rs 90 crore as short term advance for Milkfed

Taking a strong view of the issue of pending payments of dairy farmers, Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh on Monday directed the state Finance Department to immediately make available a short-term advance of Rs 90 crores to Milkfed.

Capt Amarinder, during his meeting with a delegation of Progressive Dairy Farmers’ Association (PDFA), has also ordered Milkfed to chalk out a comprehensive policy to suggest ways and means to ensure uniform milk prices across the state.

For the purpose, a four-member committee, headed by Milkfed managing director Manjit Singh Brar, with Dairy Development director Inderjit Singh, Animal Husbandry Secretary Captain Karnail Singh, and PDFA president Daljit Singh Gill as its members, was also constituted by the Chief Minister.

The committee has been mandated to evolve a time-bound action plan to implement uniform milk price structure in order to remove the glaring disparities between milk prices prevailing in different districts.

Earlier, the Milkfed MD Brar apprised the Chief Minister that the fall in the prices of milk was primarily due to lower milk procurement than their processing capacities by the private players.

He pointed out that Milkfed’s share in total procurement of milk from dairy farmers was 20 percent while the remaining 80 percent was supposed to be lifted by private companies. “But failure of these companies to lift the remaining forced Milkfed to enhance its quota of milk procurement by another five lakh litres daily at remunerative prices to assist the dairy farmers,” he said.

Expressing concern over the reported adulteration of milk and milk products, the Chief Minister emphasized on the need to crackdown on unscrupulous elements who were playing havoc with the lives of innocent people.

In response to a demand of the delegation, Capt Amarinder asked his Chief Principal Secretary Suresh Kumar to set up at least three more food testing laboratories to bring efficacy in the system of checking adulterated food items.

He asked the Financial Commissioner (Cooperation) DP Reddy to take all possible steps to strengthen the cooperative milk unions so as to enhance the production of milk and its processing at the Milkfed plants in the state.

Underscoring the role of the dairy sector in diversification of agriculture, the Chief Minister urged the delegation to take proactive steps to motivate farmers to shift to dairy farming.

The Chief Minister also asked the Milkfed MD to further tap into the marketing potential of Verka milk products like white butter, ghee, lassi, cheese and skimmed milk powder in other states, especially Delhi and NCR region.

Capt Amarinder also asked him to draw an aggressive marketing strategy to counter the competition faced from private players.