BJP women's wing national president and Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan in a statement urged the Tamil Nadu government to fulfil their demands, including a hike in milk procurement price, subsidised milch cows and grazing lands in villages.
Coimbatore: Coimbatore South MLA Vanathi Srinivasan has urged the Tamil Nadu government to fulfil various demands, including a hike in the procurement price of milk.
Vanathi Srinivasan said in a statement:
Amul has been accused of affecting the procurement of Aavin milk in Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin has urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to immediately stop the procurement of milk.
Apart from Aavin, a state-owned cooperative milk firm, various private dairies operate in Tamil Nadu. Due to this, Aavin is facing various crises. The Chief Minister, who was not worried about Aavin then, is now worried about Aavin's company.
Amul is not to blame for Aavin's incapacity to compete and face obstacles and defeats. The reason is the lack of action to increase milk procurement and the ineffective handling of the sale of milk and milk products. Today, milch animals are raised by ordinary impoverished families and oppressed people in Tamil Nadu.
Aavin will never face any problem if it buys milk from them at a higher price. Rearing milch animals is not an ordinary thing. It's as hard as raising a child. You will have to put in a lot of hard work. There will also be a huge cost of grass, straw and fodder. Earlier, milch animals were provided at subsidised rates. Now they have come down drastically.
Cattle rearers often do not own land. Therefore, there are no grazing lands rather than cattle for grazing. Green grasses are available for three to four months in a year. On other days, we have to buy straw and millet plates for the cows.
Aavin pays only Rs. 32 to Rs. 34 per litre if it takes so much effort, spends so much money to raise cows and transport milk. That too during periods when milk is available in abundance, milk producers do not buy the entire quantity of milk they bring.
Only half of the milk transported by milk producers was acquired during the Covid period.. If Aavin does not sell its milk products, it is often forced to sell it to the milk producers.
Such practical problems of the poor engaged in milk production need to be addressed. The procurement price is Rs 45 per litre for cow's milk and Rs 55 for buffalo milk.Families who desire to raise cattle shall receive at least 50% of the subsidy for milch animals.
The entire quantity of milk brought by the milk producers should be procured at all times. In villages, the government should convert unassessed lands into grazing lands. If this is done, not only Amul, but even if a thousand companies come, the milk producers will not
give up on Aavin.
The public will also not buy products from companies other than Aavin. So, if you don't want to do politics without solving the issues that really exist, nothing will happen. Realizing this, the Chief Minister should take steps to bring Aavin to the first place and protect the interests of the poor and oppressed people rearing milch animals. Vanathi Srinivasan said in her statement.