After BBMP Polls, Yeddy gets Ready to Hike Milk Prices
From Our Special Correspondent

Shikaripura (Shimoga District), Mar 30:  Now that the elections to the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) have been completed and the fate of the candidates contesting the 198 wards sealed in the Electronic Voting Machines, which will be opened on April 5 for counting, Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa has hinted at an imminent hike in Nandini Milk prices.

Yeddyurappa, who visited his Shikaripura assembly constituency in his home district of Shimoga for participating in a series of functions including Hutchuraya Jatra Mahotsava on Tuesday,  while speaking to reporters at his residence indicated that the state government might give the green signal to the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) to increase the prices of Nandini milk.

It may be recalled that the KMF chairman Gali Somashekara Reddy, brother of the all powerful Bellary mining lords cum ministers Gali Janardhana Reddy and Gali Karunakara Reddy, had been talking of increasing the Nandini milk prices by Rs 2 per litre since the last couple of months.

However, with the Supreme Court and Karnataka High Court refusing to concede the state government’s request for postponing the long-delayed elections to the BBMP and ordering that they shall be held by the end of March and the State Election Commission fixing the BBMP polls to March 28 (which have just been completed), the chief minister  had stalled the KMF plans for the milk price hike fearing an adverse reaction from the voters.

With the BBMP polls having been completed on March 28, the chief minister seems to have decided that the price hike could be announced without any adverse impact. Though the elections to the Grama Panchayat polls are also imminent and the government has given the go ahead to the State Election Commission for holding the grama panchayat polls by April-May, the BJP government seems to be counting on convincing the rural voters that the increased milk price would be passed on to the farmers and that the milk price increase might affect the urban people more than the rural voters.

The chief minister told the reporters that the increase in Nandini milk prices had become inevitable in view of the sharp rise in costs of farmers towards fodder. ``We will pass on the increase to the farmers,’’ Yeddyurappa said refusing to reveal the likely increase.

"A decision on increasing the milk prices would be taken in a few days after consulting the KMF chairman,”  he said.

The chief minister also said load-shedding had become inevitable in view of the sharp rise in demand and the acute shortage of power in the state. ``We are trying our best to minimize the impact and ensure that domestic power supply is not affected from 7 pm till 10 pm to enable the students to prepare for their annual examinations,”  he said.

Yeddyurappa said the government has been making all out efforts to procure power from other states and private energy producers.

He declined to comment on the Karnataka High Court’s reported directions to the state government for taking action against the Social Welfare Minister D Sudhakar for allegedly misappropriation of public funds.

"The government will take an appropriate decision after obtaining the full text of the High Court order as per law and in consultation with the legal department,” he said adding: ``I cannot comment without fully studying the facts.’’

Answering questions, he said the ruling BJP was not perturbed by the low turnout in the BBMP polls. ``We are confident of victory. Even though the voters’  apathy is a worrying factor and needs to be studied so as to find out the reasons and take suitable corrective measures, the prospects of BJP candidates was unlikely to be affected. Our committed voters have turned up and exercised their franchise,”  he said.