The ‘milk blockade’ called by the Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) across Maharashtra in demand of higher milk procurement prices witnessed formidable support across districts in western Maharashtra, but failed to disrupt milk supply to cities like Mumbai and Pune.
Mr. Shetti, who has been demanding that the Devendra Fadnavis-led BJP government give milk farmers a subsidy of ₹5 a litre, kickstarted the agitation from the temple town of Pandharpur, in Solapur district, in the early hours of Monday by performing a ‘milk ritual’ to the deity Vithoba.
Later, speaking in Pune, Mr. Shetti said: “We have never shut doors for discussion. The Kerala and Karnataka governments have offered subsidies to their milk farmers. We demand that the Maharashtra government do the same.”
The MP from Hatkanangle alleged that the State government was in cahoots with a ‘milk mafia’ that was skimming the profits of milk farmers.
Speaking in Nagpur, Chief Minister Fadnavis promised that milk supplies to cities would not be affected because of the SSS’ agitation. “We were ready to discuss the issue, but it seems Raju Shetti is more interested in agitation,” he said.
Speaking in the Assembly in Nagpur, State Minister for Dairy Development Mahadev Jankar announced that the government would hike milk procurement prices by ₹3 a litre. “We have already announced an export subsidy of ₹50 a kg on milk powder. I urge Raju Shetti to stop playing politics,” he said.
Warning agitators not to take the law into their own hands, Mr. Jankar reiterated that the milk supply to Mumbai would not be hit.
“The situation is well under control. I am personally monitoring it. Mumbai has enough milk provisions to last it for the next 15 days. The police have been directed to escort tankers across various parts in the State,” he said.
However, Mr. Shetti remained intransigent. He said that the agitation would continue until the government hiked the per litre milk procurement price by ₹5. “Even if Mahadev Jankar claims to have accepted the proposal of increasing the a litre price to ₹27, farmers haven’t received anything in their accounts,” he said.
The SSS would launch a ‘satyagraha’ to ensure that no milk was brought from States like Gujarat and Karnataka. “The government has been resorting to underhand tactics to disrupt our protest by taking our activists in police custody and planning to procure milk from outside States. But we won’t let this happen,” he said.
Rural areas hit, cities unaffected
The agitation received robust response particularly in the Sangli and Kolhapur districts in western Maharashtra — the nerve center of the SSS. The operations of the Kolhapur District Milk Cooperative, popularly known as ‘Gokul’ (after its famous milk brand) remained shut in the morning.
But as the day progressed, 12 Gokul Dairy tankers headed towards Mumbai under police escort.
There were disturbances in Pune as well, with five milk vans being damaged by SSS activists.
However, milk supply to Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad remained largely unaffected, with wholesalers and milk cooperatives generally managing to fulfill their distribution targets. “The distribution was largely smooth owing to the police protection we have received thus far. However, if the agitation intensifies tomorrow, then there is a chance that our operations may be affected,” said Kedar Chitale, partner, Chitale Bandhu Mithaiwale.
Nearly 100 milk producers, dairy owners and small farmers in Sangli’s Miraj area backed Mr. Shetti’s agitation.
In Ahmednagar district, farmers demonstrated in certain areas by emptying milk tankers. Major dairies in the district like Prabhat, Rajhans, S. R. Thorat among others stopped milk supply since Sunday evening, lending their assent to the protest.
Patrolling was increased along the Mumbai-Bengaluru highway with police escort teams shielding tankers belonging to Gokul Dairy heading towards Mumbai. Later in the day, 15 milk tankers from Nashik too headed towards Mumbai under police escort.
Opposition backs agitation
Mr. Shetti’s protest also received the backing of the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), with Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Assembly Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil alleging that the Fadnavis government was “not serious” about the issues plaguing milk farmers.
The Assembly witnessed uproarious scenes and Opposition walkouts over the milk subsidy issue, with NCP State president Jayant Patil demanding that the government immediately deposit the subsidy in farmers’ accounts.
Disturbances in other parts
While the response was positive in the western region of the State, tremors of the agitation were felt in the Marathwada and Konkan regions and parts of north Maharashtra as well.
Milk supply in Solapur district was thrown off-kilter owing to the SSS’ blockade. In Sangola, there were reports of SSS activists protesting by throwing milk packets on the road, while a tanker was waylaid in Madha tehsil.
SSS activists protested in Budhana district as well, damaging a van belonging to the Jalgaon district milk cooperative, which sells cow milk under the ‘Vikas’ brand.
They further prevented milk vans and tankers from moving out of the Malkapur city.
In Aurangabad district’s Vaijapur tehsil, SSS activists waylaid a tempo belonging to the local Navale milk cooperative and threw milk bags on the roads of Hadas Pimpalgaon village. At Ladsawangi village, demonstrators emptied a tanker, strewing nearly 50 litres on the village roads to protest against the government’s ‘apathy’.
“Some leaders are deliberately misleading milk producers with this protest. Their only objective appears to be to somehow put the government in a spot and harass milk producers,” said State Cooperation Minister Subhash Deshmukh, chastising Mr. Shetti for launching the agitation.
Meanwhile, a rain-battered Sindhudurg district witnessed a milk ‘bandh’, with farmers staging a protest rally in front of the District Collector’s office.
