Pay more for milk from Thursday

Representatives of leading private as well as co-operative dairies held a meeting to discuss the issue at the Katraj Dairy on Monday.

At a press conference,Katraj Dairy chairman Ramesh Bhujbal said at present the price of cow milk is Rs 22 per litre which will be increased to Rs 24,whereas,that of buffalo milk was Rs 26,which will now be Rs 28 per litre.

“After the state Cabinet gave its nod to increase the milk procurement prices by Rs 2.50 and sale price by Re 1 last week,we convened a special meeting to discuss the issue thoroughly and thus decided to hike the rates by Rs 2. The increase will come into effect from Thursday,” Bhujbal said.

Prices of milk distributed under the government milk scheme by Aarey Dairy have been increased by Re 1 from its earlier Rs 20 per litre to Rs 21. Half a litre milk pouch is now available for Rs 10.50.

“Even though the state government has upped the procurement rates by Rs 2.50,we decided not to impose that much hike on consumers and therefore,there will be a hike of only Rs 2. We decided to bear 50 paise loss by cutting down our expenses to some extent,” he said.

Representatives from 53 different organisations,including private dairies like Dynamix,Chitale and co-operative dairies like Katraj,Gokul,Rajhans,Warna,Mahanand and others attended the meeting.

Bhujbal also added that the supply of milk to Pune is down by about 20 per cent. “Junnar and Ambegaon talukas have received very scanty rainfall so far. Therefore,milk coming from these places as well as some other areas has dwindled.

Exactly a year ago the Maharashtra State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation had made a steep hike of Rs 2 per litre of cow milk from August 11. The move was prompted by scarcity of fodder,shortage of diesel and furnace oil for milk producers.