The Hindu : Front Page : Milma milk to cost Re.1 more from Monday

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Saturday, Nov 10, 2007
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Milma milk to cost Re.1 more from Monday

Special Correspondent

Milk producers to be major beneficiaries
Steps to increase milk production to meet demand

V.S. Achuthanandan says the State is firm on new Mullaperiyar dam.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Milma (Kerala State Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) milk will cost Re.1 more a litre from Monday. One litre of milk will cost Rs.17 now.

The decision to hike the price was taken at a meeting between Minister for Animal Husbandry and Civil Supplies C. Divakaran and the chairman and directors of Milma here on Friday afternoon.

A meeting of the Cabinet in the morning had authorised Mr. Divakaran to take an appropriate decision on hiking the price. Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan had said that the Cabinet had approved a proposal for revising the price if needed.

Official sources said the Milma directors had demanded a hike of Rs.2 a litre, but ultimately agreed to fix it at Re.1 a litre. Milk producers will be the major beneficiaries of the hike. They will get an increase of 58 paise a litre. Milma will get 30 paise, agents and the livestock development corporation 5 paise each and the welfare board for milk producers 2 paise.

While the State needs 80 lakh litres of milk a day, Milma provides only 60 lakh litres. The shortfall of 20 lakh litres is being met by private companies.

While the milk price in Tamil Nadu is Rs.15.50 a litre, it is Rs.17 in Bihar, Rs.18 in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, Rs.19 in Punjab, Rs.20 in Gujarat and Rs.21 in Delhi.

Steps have been taken to increase milk production to meet the increasing needs, sources said. Mr. Divakaran had earlier said that an increase was unavoidable considering the losses of the Federation. The losses were caused mostly from import of milk.

To compensate

The State government decided to compensate the liability incurred by cooperate banks on waiving the agriculture loans of farmers who committed suicide.

Briefing reporters after a Cabinet meeting here on Wednesday, the Chief Minister said the cooperative banks had written off agriculture loans up to Rs.1 lakh and incurred a liability of Rs.1 crore. The government has decided to take over the liability, he said.

It was decided to form a separate engineering wing for the Local Administration Department. Employees would be redeployed to the engineering wing to be headed by a chief engineer.

Asked about the reports of soft drink companies in Palakkad using groundwater beyond the permissible limits, the Chief Minister said steps would be taken to curb the use of water by these companies. Engineers had been deputed to monitor the condition of the Mullaperiyar dam following heavy rain. The government would go ahead with the steps to construct a new dam at Mullaperiyar. He denied the allegation that the conditions of the Smart City deal had been changed after signing the agreement. The Chief Minister accused the Opposition of spreading canards about the project. The foundations for the project would be laid on November 16.

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