Rajya Sabha member K.R.N. Rajeshkumar said that a government order (GO) had been issued to set up a hi-tech dairy in Namakkal at ₹89.28 crore.
On Monday, Minister for Forests M. Mathiventhan, handed over the GO to Mr. Rajeshkumar in the presence of District Collector S. Uma and MLAs P. Ramalingam and K. Ponnusamy.
Mr. Rajeshkumar told reporters there were 500 primary milk producer cooperative societies in Namakkal, and 72,000 milk producers were members of these societies. As many as 12,500 members provided milk to the societies daily in the morning and evening. Through them, 1.15 lakh litres of milk was procured every day, of which 85,000 litres were processed and sold to consumers in Namakkal district.
At present, four milk procurement offices and three milk sales offices were functioning under the control of Namakkal Aavin. The procured milk was sent to 16 milk chilling centres at the village level and to the chilling centres at Namakkal and Paramathi Velur on a daily basis. Now, the milk and its by-products were procured from Aavin in Salem and nearby districts, Mr. Rajeshkumar added.
In Namakkal district, 6.5 lakh litres of milk was produced a day, and in that, Namakkal Aavin procured around 1.5 lakh litres (17.6%). Taking this into consideration, the State government announced in the Assembly that a hi-tech dairy with a handling capacity of two lakh litres would be set up in Namakkal through the National Dairy Development Board.
The GO was issued on November 16. The Ministry of Food Processing Industries provided a ₹8-crore grant for the dairy, Mr. Rajeshkumar added.
