The incentive of ?4 per litre announced by the Vijaya Dairy was neither reaching farmers nor cooperative dairy societies; it was instead benefiting private dairies, said Chennamaneni Ramesh, Telangana Rashtra Samithi MLA, in the Assembly on Wednesday. The issue of modernisation and expansion of Vijaya Dairy was raised by TRS member S. Ramalinga Reddy during Question Hour. There was demand for Vijaya Dairy milk because of its quality and it was time to set up cooperative societies to procure more milk to meet the demand. TRS MLA Srinivas Goud said that while the demand for milk was between 25 lakh litres to 30 lakh litres in Hyderabad itself, Vijaya Dairy procurement increased from one lakh litres to four lakh litres only. As a result, people were buying milk from private dairies. Mr. Ramesh said that the government was showing “step-motherly” attitude towards cooperative dairies instead of strengthening them. Vijaya Dairy should adopt the model of cooperative dairies as in the case of Karnataka, and procure milk through cooperative dairies and help farmers. The government should have announced the incentive exclusively for cooperative dairies so that their milk procurement would go up. Adulterated milk Mr. Srinivas Goud alleged that private dairies were still administering banned injections to buffaloes for greater yield, but that was harmful to ones health. The menace of adulterated milk by private dairies was another serious concern. Minister Srinivas Yadav said after Telangana was formed, the government took steps to revive Vijaya Dairy which was neglected by earlier governments to benefit private dairies. The renamed Vijaya Telangana Dairy announced ?4 incentive to encourage farmers supply milk to the dairy. This forced private dairies to pay incentive to farmers. Vijaya Dairy was now procuring four lakh litres and steps would be taken to pay the incentive on the spot. All necessary measures were being taken to promote by-products of milk like butter and ghee. Cooperative dairies would be encouraged and asked to supply milk to Vijaya Dairy and not to private dairies, Mr. Yadav said.

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