Milk demand soars on Kharna; extra supply vehicles deployed

Ranchi: Ranchi Gaushala Nyas (RGN), a city-based cowshed, donated 500 litres of milk to devotees as a free service to be utilised in the preparation of kheer (made from milk) for the Kharna Puja ahead of Chhath.
The cowshed has been providing free milk service to hundreds of devotees during the Kharna puja for the past 30 years.
Talking to TOI, Ratan Jalal, chairman of the Ranchi Gaushala Nyas, said: “During this puja, the demand for milk increases and in order to help the devotees who are not financially sound, we provide them milk free of cost. This year, we have provided 500 litres of milk for free as per the demand of the people.”
Moreover, on the occasion of Kharna Puja, the demand of milk from dairies doubled in the market. To accommodate the market's increased demand, the dairies have deployed extra delivery vehicles.
Amritesh Kumar, senior manager of Medha Dairy owned by the Jharkhand Milk Federation (JMF), said: “During the puja season, milk supply across the state requires the deployment of additional delivery vehicles owing to the surge in demand. To ensure smooth supply, we have deployed around 15 extra vehicles at various places throughout the state.”
On the occasion, Sudha Dairy has delivered 4 lakh litres of milk as opposed to its average daily delivery of 1 lakh litres.
Majid Uddin, CEO of Sudha brand of milk marketed by the Bihar Milk Cooperative Federation, said: “It was expected that following the Covid–19 pandemic, the need for milk would increase substantially during the festival. So we already prepared with the additional vehicles to meet the market’s demand. On an average, 1 lakh litres of milk is required each day, but on these two days, the demand gets doubled. We supplied 4 lakh litres of milk in two days."
Devotees asked their nearby shops in advance to reserve their required quantity of milk for the puja.
Kavita Singh, a homemaker, said: "We have already told our nearby store to reserve 10 litres of milk for us so that it does not run out of stock."