With dairy farmers across Maharashtra in dire straits in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Raju Shetti-led Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS) has demanded that the State government provide a subsidy of ₹5 per litre of milk while announcing a special package to offset their losses.
The Swabhimani Paksha, along with the Left-affiliated All Indian Kisan Sabha (AIKS), has called for a symbolic day-long milk blockade on July 21. “While farmers will stop milk distribution on July 21, we have urged them to desist from agitating by throwing their excess milk. Instead of this wastage, milk will be distributed to the needy,” Mr. Shetti said, warning that the agitation would intensify if the State government fails to meet the farmers’ demands.
Speaking to The Hindu from Kolhapur, Mr. Shetti, a two-time former MP from Hatkanangale, warned of the precipitously falling levels of milk procurement owing to successive COVID-19-induced lockdowns.
Bearing the brunt
“Farmers have borne the brunt of the lockdown, with hotels, ice cream parlours, malls remaining largely shut and marriage functions not taking place at their usual scale. As a result, apart from packaged milk, the demand for milk products and ancillary products like butter, milk powder, shrikhand has reduced drastically, leading to 55 lakh litres of milk lying unused from the State’s daily average procurement of 1.19 crore litres,” he said.
Mr. Shetti said the rates of milk powder had dipped from ₹330 to ₹160 per kg, while that of butter had declined sharply from ₹320 to ₹200 per kg. Most of the packaged milk was only being sold by big cooperatives, with the lesser dairy farmers having no options to sell their milk produce, he said.
‘Give ₹500-cr. package’
Mr. Shetti said, “All this has resulted in milk prices falling from ₹35 to ₹17-20 per litre. Our demands are clear: the State government, besides giving a subsidy of ₹5 per litre, should provide a subsidy of ₹50 per kg on milk powder.” He added that a package of ₹500-crore over a three-month period was not much of a burden on the State exchequer.
He also condemned the Centre’s decision to import milk powder despite thousands of tonnes of the commodity lying unsold in Maharashtra and other parts of the country. He said in a notification dated June 23, the Union Ministry of Finance exempted imports of milk and cream under the Tariff Rate Quota. He also urged the Centre to waive the GST on milk powder, butter and ghee to provide immediate relief to dairy farmers.
He said, “The notification allows import of 10,000 tonnes of milk powder. There are 50,000 tonnes of the item lying about in Maharashtra. At this critical juncture, what is the need for the Centre to import and undercut domestic dairy farmers?”
Mr. Shetti said if the Centre does not stop the import of milk powder, or if the State does not accede to the Swabhimani Paksha’s demands, he would intensify the milk agitation, regardless of whether there was a lockdown or not.
‘Against fruitless talks’
Dr. Ajit Nawale, State General Secretary, AIKS, said when the State government purchased 10 lakh litres of milk a couple of months ago, the move benefited only larger cooperatives, while 78% of private and smaller dairy farmers could not avail of the benefits. He said, “While the government has invited the AIKS, the Shetkari Sanghatana and dairy producers for discussions on July 21, we are opposed to such fruitless parleys. Instead of wasting time, the government should immediately credit a subsidy of ₹10 to the farmers’ bank accounts.”
Dr. Nawale said if no financial alleviation is announced soon, the dairy farmers will have no choice but to intensify their agitation, which will be backed to the hilt by the AIKS.
