Chief minister Jai Ram Thakur on Wednesday launched an immunity booster ‘Him Haldi Dudh’ manufactured by MILKFED on Wednesday.

He also distributed incentives worth ₹16 lakh to milk producers in Mandi, Shimla and Kullu districts under the national programme for dairy development and interacted with them through video conference in Shimla.

The CM said the turmeric milk had been developed by the Punjabi University bio-technology department had been patented.

“The drink helps detox and has anti-hangover, anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and immunity boosting properties,” he said.

Thakur said that under the National Dairy Development Programme MILKFED had transferred ₹2,000 each into the accounts of 835 milk producers as incentive and also provided 5-litre stainless steel buckets to 1,000 mill producers for collection and transportation of milk for marketing.

He said the state government had enhanced the procurement price of milk twice to facilitate milk producers. He said presently milk was being procured at the rate of ₹ 27.80 per litre.

He said the capacity of MILKFED plants at Chakkar and Duttnagar had been enhanced. At present, MILKFED os managing eleven milk plants in the State and around 1,011 Milk Cooperatives are associated with the federation. Thakur said the annual turnover of MILKFED was ₹ 132 crore in 2019-20, which was 33% higher than the previous year.

Govt committed to economic welfare of poor, downtrodden: CM

Thakur said his government is committed to the economic upliftment and welfare poor and downtrodden section of the society. He was interacting with the beneficiaries of different schemes in his home constituency Seraj Vidhan through video conference. The CM said the state government had started several schemes for social economic upliftment of the poor and downtrodden of the state. He said it was for the first time that the state government has set a target of construction of 10,000 houses in the state under different housing schemes.

“The state government has also launched Himachal Grihini Suvidha Yojana to make every household smoke-free and save womenfolk from the indoor pollution,” said Thakur. He said under this scheme, free LPG connections were being provided to the families left out from Ujjawala scheme started by the Central Government.

To date, over 2.78 lakh free gas connections have been provided to the beneficiaries under the scheme, he added. He said 9,12,078 farmers of the state have been benefitted under PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana. “State government has decided to provide financial assistance worth ₹ 4 crore to the affected floriculturists,” he said.