From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bangalore, Aug 31: Aiming to overtake the country’s top milk producer state of Gujarat, Karnataka is facing a problem of plenty as far as production of milk and its products are concerned forcing the milk producers cooperative unions in dire straits and the milk producers struggling to make both ends meet.

Karnataka is producing record milk production. But the milk producers cooperative unions and the dairies in the State were unable to dispose of the huge stocks of milk products and clear the dues of the milk producers, who had supplied milk.

According to former minister and JD(S) floor leader H D Revanna, who had served as the Karnataka Milk Federation President till his dethronement by G Somashekara Reddy, the youngest brother the Bellary mining lord G Janardhana Reddy, various milk unions in the State held a huge stock of 3792 tonnes of butter and 11,887 tonnes of skimmed milk powder worth nearly Rs 250 crore.

The JD(S) leader, who is obviously angling to recapture the KMF president’s post following Somashekara Reddy being remanded to judicial custody over the bail deal for his brother Janardhana Reddy arrested in the illegal mining case and imprisoned for almost a year, said the milk unions had not cleared payments to the tune of Rs 220 crore to the milk producers for almost two months now.

Revanna urged the State Government to take immediate steps to get the huge stocks of milk products like butter, ghee and milk powder etc so that the huge unpaid bills of over Rs 220 crore of the milk producing farmers were cleared immeadiately.
Revanna demanded that the Chief Minister Jagadish Shetar should take immediate steps to clear the stocks of butter worth Rs 68 crore and milk powder worth Rs 170 crore by distributing them to anganwadi children, school students during the mid-day meal scheme or poor patients in hospitals.

The milk products would perish if the Government delays in lifting the stock, he said.
Milk producers, members of milk unions, MLAs, MLCs and MPs would stage a protest in front of the Chief Minister’s residential office (Krishna) on September 10 if the government failed to take steps to clear the buffer stock, Revanna warned.

All milk unions and the Karnataka Milk Federation would become bankrupt if the Government has not provided financial support to them. Milk unions have been incurring loss of Rs 70 to Rs 80 lakh per day, the former KMF chairman said.

Due to the Centre’s decision to ban export of butter and milk powder last year and increase in the milk production, the price of milk powder crashed from Rs 180 per kg to Rs 120 while price of butter reduced to Rs 170 a kg from Rs 200.
There was no demand for milk products due to increase in milk production in other states also, he said.

The state has been producing 50 lakh kg of milk daily. Farmers who have been facing the hardship due to drought would be facing a lot of problems if the milk unions don’t have finances to make payments to milk producers, Revanna said.