From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Jul 31: Daily milk production in Karnataka has touched an all-time high of 74 lakh litres against the average consumption of 44 lakh litres.
However, despite the surplus milk production in the State, the Government has no plans to declare a milk holiday for procurement, declared the State’s Animal Husbandry Minister T B Jayachandra in the State Legislative Assembly on Friday.
Jayachandra, who is also the minister for law and parliamentary affairs, said declaring a milk holiday would adversely affect the interests of the farmers.
A meeting of presidents and managing directors of all the 3 milk unions in the State would be called in 4 to 5 days to chalk out a strategy for utilising excess milk produced in the State, the minister said.
Based on the suggestions given by milk unions, he said efforts would be made to utilise excess milk.
The State’s daily milk production stood at 74 lakh litres against consumption 44 lakh litres.
The State has milk power stock of 20,000 tonnes and there was no demand for it, he said.
The State Government has released funds to milk unions (incentive of Rs 4 a litre) till March end. But milk unions had not released incentive money to milk producers, Opposition members said.
H D Revanna and YSV Dattaof JD(S), Visvesvara Hegde Kageri and C T Ravi (BJP) and Ramesh Kumar (Congress) demanded the government to strengthen the marketing network of Karnataka Milk Federation for generating demand for milk.
The members demanded extension of Ksheera Bhagya from three to six days a week in schools so that part of the excess milk could be effectively utilised and also the malnutrition of school-going children could be improved.
B R Patil (KJP) said the State was unable to sell milk due to import of milk from neighbouring States such as Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra and marketing of branded manufactured milk such as Arogya and Heritage.
Nearly 12 lakh litres of being imported to the State daily, he said and urged the State Government to ensure that the milk from other States was not dumped in Karnataka as it would affect the farmers in the State.