spearheaded protests demanding a hike in milk procurement
prices for dairy farmers in various parts of Maharashtra.
At many places, farmers poured milk on streets and
briefly blocked roads by raising slogans.
Their main demands include increasing the subsidy to
Rs 10 per litre for milk and revising milk procurement price
to Rs 30 per litre. They have also demanded a hike in the
export subsidy for milk powder per kg.
Similar protests for better procurement prices for
milk were held recently by various farmers” organisations like
the Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghantna (SSS), the Rayat Shektkari
Sanghatana and the All India Kisan Sabha.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra BJP preident Chandrakant Patil
targeted Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray over the issues of
dairy farmers.
“I want to know how many times did CM Thackeray visit
Delhi to raise issues of milk producers in the state. If he
doesn”t know the issues of the dairy industry, he should send
(to Delhi) leaders like Ajit Pawar (NCP) and Balasaheb Thorat
(Congress) who have in-depth knowledge of the sector,” he
said.
The NCP and the Congress are constituents of the Shiv
Sena-led Maha Vikas Aghadi government.
Another BJP leader Haribhau Bagade accused the NCP and
the Congress of “misleading” people on the issue of importing
milk powder.
The Congress and the NCP had alleged that the Centre”s
policy to import milk powder is affecting the domestic dairy
industry.
“It”s an annual practice by the Centre to float
tenders for importing milk powder. The Centre has not imported
even a kilogram of milk powder so far,” the former speaker of
the Legislative Assembly said.
He said leaders of the NCP and the Congress should
initiate measures to increase milk procurement rates for
farmers. PTI ND
NSK NSK
Disclaimer :- This story has not been edited by Outlook staff and is auto-generated from news agency feeds. Source: PTI
