At a time when the cooperative sector is faced with questions on its survival due to onslaught of the corporates in many areas, the Srikalahasti Cooperative Milk Supply Society Limited (TSCMSSL) in Chittoor district has no rival in the last six decades enjoying unbeaten public faith in its quality. The society came into existence in 1952, with half a dozen dairy farmers, making an annual turnover of a few thousands. The TSCMSSL presently has an annual turnover of Rs 10 crore, with 5,067 farmers as its members in Srikalahasti and Thottambedu mandals. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the society is a household name in many eastern mandals.
Society chairman Ravilla Muniraja Naidu told The Hindu that the procurement of milk is 10,000 litres per day. “Transparency is our motto. Our administration has no parallel in the country. This summer, we pay Rs. 27 a litre to the producer and sell the milk directly to public through our vendors at Rs 30 a litre. Out of our marginal profits, we give annual bonus to all the active milk producers, besides arranging loans, cattle and life insurance to them. We netted a profit of Rs 46 lakh for 2014-15. Our products have big patronage all over district, and also from pilgrims," he said.
“In the last two decades, a number of private dairies entered our region, but could not get a foothold. After satisfying our regular public customers, and supplying milk to our products, we are giving surplus milk to some private dairies," Mr Muniraja Naidu said. The society's exclusive feature is that it has no cooling units, as the milk is supplied ‘raw’, direct from collection centres. The society has assets to the tune of Rs 7 crore in Srikalahasti and bank deposits to the tune of Rs 2 crore. Forest Minister Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy, native of Srikalahasti, has recently mooted granting of government land to the society for construction of a marriage hall, exclusively to cater to the requirements of the families of milk producers. The society is cent per cent free from corruption, thanks to the introduction of software for instant record of procurement, surplus stocks, receipts and payments, apart from monitoring the track record of all the members, each with an exclusive number. "In future, we want to serve dairy farmers with zero profit, and sustaining on sales of milk products alone. We have massive expansion plans," he added.
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(Reporting by
K. Umashanker)