The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), along with its allies, the Rayat Kranti Party (RKP), the Republican Party (Athawale faction), the Rashtriya Samaj Paksha (RSP) and Shiv Sangram, will stage a state-wide agitation on August 1 to press for higher rates for milk producers.
The decision was taken in Sunday’s “Mahayuti’ alliance meeting, according to BJP state general secretary Sujit Singh Thakur.
The meeting was attended by BJP state president Chandrakant Patil, leader of opposition in the assembly Devendra Fadnavis, Mahadev Jankar, Sadabhau Khot, Vinayak Mete, Avinash Mahatekar, BJP Kisan Morcha state president Anil Bonde and others.
Earlier, the party and allies agitated on July 21 to draw attention to the various demands of milk producers. However, the BJP leader said that since the state government has not accepted demands, they are planning to intensify the agitation from August 1.
According to Thakur, due to the declining demand during the lockdown, milk producers are facing a huge crisis. The price of milk has fallen by Rs 16 as hotels and other businesses have stopped making purchases. “There is a situation where even the cost of production is not recovered due to the decline in demand. The state government had announced that milk will be purchased at Rs 25 per litre. However, government milk is being procured only from certain milk unions,” Thakur claimed.
“Injustice is being done to other milk producers across the state. In such a situation a subsidy of Rs 10 per litre should be directly credited in the bank accounts of milk-producing farmers. A further subsidy of Rs 50 per kg for export of milk powder should be given, so also a procurement price of Rs. 30 per litre for cow’s milk,” said Thakur.
Source: hindustantimes.com
