As a result of demonetisation, pilferage of the State’s resources, by milk producers from border areas of neighbouring States,has now come to light and been eliminated.
Milk societies, which were paying ₹4 a litre incentive to Karnataka farmers upfront on delivery of milk, implemented strict payment norms in November and migrated to online transfer through Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS). This exposed many fake beneficiaries who are not residents of Karnataka.
“We noticed this misuse of incentive money in Kalaburagi region. Milk suppliers from Telangana region benefited incentives provided by the government,” Animal Husbandry Minister A. Manju said.
The State government is assessing gains post demonetisation and loss incurred after incentives were announced, which is expected to run into several hundred crores of rupees.
The department has detected a similar pattern of incentive misuse in other borders areas such as Belagavi and Dakshina Kannada and has instructed all 14 milk unions to link milk producers bank accounts to Aadhaar cards.
Now, with the linkage of bank accounts with Aadhaar, only milk suppliers of the State will get incentive money provided by the government, Mr. Manju said.
Karnataka has around 8.91 lakh milk producers. The State government disperses about ₹45 crore a month in the form of incentives to milk suppliers.
