Anurag Tewari, Deputy Commissioner, reprimanded officials for slowing down the work of increasing milk procurement from cooperative societies in the district.
At a meeting to review the progress of the milk shed scheme at the DC’s office on Monday, Mr. Tewari asked officials to table an action taken report on various issues discussed in the last monthly meeting. Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) and Veterinary Department officials, however, said that they could not appoint NGOs to promote milk producers’ cooperative societies in villages. We need to call a tender for the purpose and that has caused the delay, they said.
They clarified that they had not anticipated the delay earlier.
Additional volunteers
Mr. Tewari suggested that they hire additional volunteers from registered NGOs at pre-decided rates, till the tender was finalised.
He said he would set deadlines for each task and hold individual officers responsible, if they fail to achieve targets.
He asked them to refresh their databases and plan their work only after the figures are up to date.
He asked the officials to revive defunct milk societies, along with setting up new societies. He warned of strict action against officials if they were involved in diverting funds or selecting undeserving beneficiaries.
He asked B.H. Govind, Deputy Director of Veterinary Department, to coordinate with the Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University and the KMF in training farmers. If different agencies are doing the same thing among the same beneficiary groups, it helps to dovetail programmes and pool resources, he said.
He announced that the district would adopt Pashu – Poshan, a web-based tool developed by the National Dairy Development Board, to keep track of animals and monitor the various programmes of the government and other agencies like KMF.
Monitoring committee
A district-level monitoring committee will be set up including members of various departments, agencies and the University, he said.
He asked the department to set up a farmer helpline that could send bulk SMS to animal rearers and answer their questions. We will try to set up this helpline in a rural BPO model, he said.
S. Lakshmi Narasappa, managing director, Bidar-Gulbarga-Yadgir milk union, said they were planning to set up 80 new societies by year-end. An estimated Rs. 1.1 lakh will be spent on setting up a new society.
“We plan to distribute at least 1,600 cows and buffaloes to farmers this year, he said. The government had released Rs. 4 crore to the union, of which 75 per cent would be spent in Bidar district this year,” he said.
Rajshekar Patil, MLA, Revanasiddappa Patil, president of the union, S.M. Shivaprakash, director, extension, KVAFSU, and others were present.
