Chennai: A day after the State government announced a rise in milk prices by Rs 6 per litre, opposition parties such as DMK, Congress and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam slammed the move and demanded a rollback.
However, the Palaniswami defended the government’s decision. Speaking to reporters at Salem airport, he said, “Everyone know that prices have gone up across sectors in the last five years. When that is the situation, it is also necessary to increase the price of milk procurement? During the five year gap, the prices of cattle feed, maintenance charges increased. It was due to these reasons, the government decided to increase the milk procurement prices.” He further informed that the Dairy Development Minister K T Rajenthra Balaji had requested him to increase the milk procurement prices as it had not been revised in the last five years.
On Saturday, the State government announced a rise in milk prices by Rs 6 per litre. Holding that milk production play a vital role in boosting economy in rural areas, the government said milk procurement price has been increased by Rs 4 and Rs 6 for cow and buffalo milk, respectively.
As per the revised structure, cow milk will now cost Rs 32 per litre from the earlier Rs 28 and buffalo milk at Rs 41 per litre as against Rs 35. Prices of all variants of milk will be increased by Rs 6 per litre. This is being done to ensure that there is no compromise on the quality of milk supplied to consumers and to enhance infrastructure of milk producers besides handling processing charges, transportation and logistics costs.