Pics: Prajwal Ukkuda
The Hindu

Mangalore, Feb 15: President of Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) H.D. Revanna urged the State Government to withdraw the 30 ‘B’ notification that prevents the federation from rising the price of milk.

He was speaking after inaugurating the renovated building of the Dakshina Kannada Co-Operative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd (DKMU) and the Raita Kalyana Trust here on Saturday.

Criticising the Government for not imposing similar restrictions on private milk producing companies, he said the milk prices in Karnataka were the lowest in the country.

‘Increase subsidy’

Stating that it was his initiative to pay Rs. 2 a litre subsidy to milk producers, he said it could be increased to Rs. 4 a litre.

In response to the union’s request for a grant of Rs. 10 lakh for the newly-formed trust, Mr. Revanna said he would ensure that the trust got the money from the Government. The union urged the Government to reimburse Rs. 99.05 lakh, which had been spent on shifting the water pipeline from Padil while widening the national highway.

President of DKMU Kaup Diwakar Shetty read out the proposal during the function. The renovated unit has a capacity of processing 2.5-lakh litres of milk a day against 1 lakh litres earlier.

I.R. Ramlingegowda, managing director, KMF, said that there was a need to encourage youth to study animal husbandry. He said that the federation had plans to start a cattle feed production centre at Karkala, shortly.

A training centre for milk producers has been started at the renovated DKMU, which was inaugurated by district in-charge Minister J. Krishna Palemar.

A minute’s silence was observed at the training centre in memory of late K.K. Pai, a founding member of DKMU.