The Tamil Nadu Milk Producers’ Welfare Association (TNMPWA) has urged the State Government to come forward to waive the loans procured by the entire farming community, irrespective of the big, marginal or small categories.
In a communication to the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa on Tuesday, K. A. Sengottuvelu, president, and M. G. Rajendran, general secretary of the association, commended her for coming out with an announcement on waiving the loans procured from the cooperative societies by the small and marginal farmers immediately on assuming charge.
Many farmers in the ‘big farmers’ category’ too have procured loans and have been struggling to repay them. They are not in a position to bear this burden. The Chief Minister should consider their plight and come forward to waive the loans procured by the big farmers too, the memorandum said.
The communication also demanded the State government to take steps for including the milk in the menu of the nutritious noon meal centres.
The milk production in the State is getting enhanced. But the primary milk producers’ cooperative societies and district level unions are not coming forward to procure the entire milk supplied by the farmers.
Many unions have fixed quota / ceiling for the procurement of milk and this has hit the milk farmers badly. The refusal to procure milk from farmers will only paralyse the entire industry, they said and said that adding milk to the noon meal menu was the only way to solve this problem.
