New Delhi: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Okay Stalin on Thursday urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to direct Gujarat-based dairy large Amul to desist from milk procurement within the southern state with quick impact. Writing to Shah, Stalin drew the Centre’s consideration to the problems arising out of milk procurement by the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union (Amul) within the Tamil Nadu milk shed space. Recently, it has come to the state authorities’s discover that Amul has utilised its multi-state cooperative license to put in chilling centres and a processing plant in Krishnagiri district, Stalin stated. Also, Amul has deliberate to acquire milk via FPOs and SHGs in and round Krishnagiri, Dharmapuri, Vellore, Ranipet, Tirupathur, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts in Tamil Nadu.
“It has been a norm in India to let cooperatives thrive without infringing on each other’s milk-shed area. Such cross-procurement goes against the spirit of ‘Operation White Flood’ and will exacerbate problems for the consumers given the prevailing milk shortage scenario in the country. This act of AMUL infringes on Aavin’s (TN Co-operative Milk Producers Federation) milk shed area which has been nurtured in true cooperative spirit over decades.”
This transfer by AMUL will create unhealthy competitors between cooperatives engaged in procuring and advertising milk and milk merchandise. “Regional cooperatives have been the bedrock of dairy development in the states and they are better placed to engage and nurture producers and to cushion consumers from arbitrary price hikes. Therefore, I request your urgent intervention to direct Amul to desist from milk procurement from the milk shed area of Aavin in Tamil Nadu with immediate effect,” the Chief Minister stated.
Providing a backgrounder to the matter, Stalin stated until now, Amul was solely promoting their merchandise in Tamil Nadu via their retailers. In Tamil Nadu, like in different States with sturdy dairy cooperatives, a three-tier dairy cooperative system is functioning successfully since 1981 for the good thing about the agricultural milk producers and customers, Stalin stated.
“Aavin is our apex cooperative marketing federation. Under the ambit of Aavin co-operative, 9,673 Milk Producers Co-operative Societies are functioning in rural areas. They procure 35 LLPD of milk from about 4.5 lakh pouring members. Under this current arrangement, milk producers are assured of remunerative and uniform prices throughout the year by the cooperative societies.”
In order to extend and maintain milk manufacturing in Tamil Nadu, Aavin additionally gives varied inputs equivalent to cattle feed, fodder, mineral combination, animal well being care and breeding companies for animals of milk producers. In addition, it ensures the provision of high quality milk and milk merchandise to customers at one of many lowest costs in our nation. Thus, Aavin performs an important function in enhancing the livelihood of rural milk producers and the assembly the dietary requirement of customers, he stated.
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