With thousands of auto rickshaw and taxi drivers across Tamil Nadu surviving without any income for the past several months, State-owned Aavin management has come up with the idea of turning these people into Aavin agents to utilise their vehicles and sell Aavin products to the public.
Chennai:
“During the lockdown, the deposit amount for agents has reduced from Rs 10,000 to just Rs 1,000. The autorickshaw and taxi drivers can now use their vehicles as mobile Aavin units to sell milk and other products through which they can earn up to Rs 15,000 per month,” an Aavin official said in an official statement.
With severe restrictions in place in several districts due to the increasing number of COVID-19 cases, auto rickshaw and taxi drivers are still struggling to get customers despite the easing of rules in most parts.
Thus, the Aavin management, with the dual intention of increasing its sale during this period and to provide employment to those who have lost their livelihood, reduced the deposit amount to Rs 1,000 which has resulted in 575 new dealers across the State so far.
The first set of autorickshaw and taxi drivers have enrolled themselves as Aavin agents in Tirunelveli and The Nilgiris. This is expected to continue in other districts too over the coming weeks. Aavin officials said that the new scheme for agents is available in all the districts and interested persons can approach the respective district managers of Aavin to get themselves enrolled as agents.
As of now, Aavin is procuring 40 lakh litres of milk from farmers and is selling 25 lakh litres per day.