Kolkata: A number of Mother Dairy outlets in the city reeled under acute short supply of packaged milk on Friday. The short supply that had affected the outlets for over three months almost dried up on Friday and a number of customers were compelled to return empty-handed. "We have been facing acute short supply for over three months and the situation has deteriorated further in the past one week. We used to have a supply of around 45 crates of packaged Mother Dairy milk on a regular basis. But presently, we are having 20 such packets. The number came down to a meagre 10 on Friday," said an official manning an outlet in Lake Town. He added that the company had reasoned the increase in the price of raw materials behind the short supply. "Amul has been purchasing milk at a much higher rate from the milk farmers. This has contributed towards short supply for our state-owned company Mother Dairy. We have forwarded a proposal to the state Finance department for increasing the purchase price for farmers. We are hopeful that things will be sorted out soon," said Swapan Debnath, state Animal Resources Development minister. It has been learnt that Amul pays Rs 32 a litre to the milk farmers while the state pays Rs 27.60 a litre. The total number of milk farmers in the state is around 10,000 and Mother Dairy used to purchase 2 lakh litres of milk from them daily. But now, it has been purchasing half the quantity. Mother Dairy has a huge demand in the state because of its quality and price that is less than other brands. Executive Council member of West Bengal Veterinary Council Gurucharan Dutta said: "Mother Dairy is the pride of Bengal and it is our responsibility to normalise its function."

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