Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on Thursday strongly defended in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, the move to hike the retail price of “Aavin” milk.
Replying to a debate on the special call attention motion, the Chief Minister said the decision to increase the retail price and procurement price of milk had been made with a view to giving a reasonable procurement price to milk producers; effecting the retail price proportionately and making Aavin milk available at rates cheaper than those of private milk.
He rejected the argument in favour of the government bearing losses caused by the rise in procurement prices. “Subsidies can be given to the poor, not well-off sections,” he said.
Referring to the milk adulteration case, the Chief Minister said the police filed a chargesheet against 23 persons in this regard and the Aavin administration had introduced several measures to prevent recurrence of such irregularities.
He also dismissed the contention that had the “isolated instance” of milk adulteration been prevented by the Aavin administration, which had been procuring 25 lakh litres of milk a day, there would not be any need for the increase in the retail price.
