Farmers up in arms against milk barons

Farmers supplying milk to co-operative milk processing units in Kolhapur are protesting against the directors of these units for not paying a fair price.

Most of the villages in south Maharashtra have primary co-operative milk dairies that collect milk from local farmers and supply it to milk processing units.

After pasteurising and packaging the milk, the processing units supply it to urban areas in Maharashtra, including Mumbai.

Raju Shetty, MLA and chief of the Swabhimani Shetakari Sanghatana (SSS), who had earlier launched a protest against sugar barons, is now mobilising the Farmers' United Front to fight milk barons.

Farmers have demanded that they be paid Rs 18 per litre against the Rs 12 they get now. Pasteurised and packaged milk is sold at Rs 20 per litre in Kolhapur and other cities and at Rs 24 per litre in Mumbai.

About 11 lakh litres of milk is collected and distributed every day.

According to Shetty, while pasteurising, packaging and transporting milk cost Rs 6 per litre, the remaining Rs 6 is the profit, which means processing units make a profit of Rs 66 lakh a day.

He alleged that the profit is distributed among directors who have amassed wealth and assets while farmers do not get a fair price.

The farmers observed a one-day bandh on Monday due to which consumers in cities and Mumbai did not get milk on Tuesday. Following the success of the bandh, Shetty said if the directors did not respond, the protests will gain momentum.

Arun Narake, a director at the 'Gokul' co-operative unit has sought talks with Shetty. Narake has also asked Shetty to explain how it was possible to pay Rs 18 per litre for the raw milk supplied to them.

Narake criticised the Minister of State for Dairy Development Hasan Mushrif, who is also the vice-president of the government-controlled 'Mahananda Dairy', for not taking steps to stop the protests.