Tamil Nadu milk producers plan to go on strike July 28

SALEM: The Tamil Nadu Milk Producers Welfare Association has threatened to go on strike on July 28 in Salem and Villupuram districts to press for their demand that government procure the entire quantity of milk produced by the village-level cooperative societies.  

Addressing a press meet here on Monday, the association’s president K A Sengottuvel said that the government should procure the entire milk produced and given through co-operative societies without returning even a drop of milk.
“This has been one of our long-pending demands. But the government, which announced procuring one crore litres of milk has been taking only 30 lakh litres of milk daily. The milk producers incur a loss of around Rs 500 crore annually due to non-procurement of the entire milk,” he said.

Further, Mr. Sengottuvel said that the procurement price of cow’s milk should be increased by Rs 32 per litre and buffalo milk by Rs 39 per litre. “It has been two years since the procurement price was increased and now the production cost has gone up almost 30 per cent,” he said.

The association also blamed ‘Aavin’ for not taking any efforts to increase sales. “In the first phase, the milk producers will protest in front of the Collector’s offices in both Salem and Villupuram districts on July 28. If the government does not pay heed to our demands, then the milk producers will gherao the secretariat during the Assembly session,” Sengottuvel said.