Govt eyes Mother Dairy Kolkata to end milk crisis in Jharkhand
The state government is now eyeing on the Mother Dairy in Kolkata, after the Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (OMFED) has failed to end its crisis of packaged milk, a government official said.
The state government is now eyeing on the Mother Dairy in Kolkata, after the Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (OMFED) has failed to end its crisis of packaged milk, a government official said.
According to a source, the same situation might continue till July 1 as there is a shortage in supply at Sudha Dairy too. Few days ago, the state dairy development officials approached OMFED to discuss on the issue. But according to OMFED officials, they would be able to provide around 20 to 25,000 litres of milk every day and that too in Jamshedpur area. According to information, the demand for packaged milk is around four lakh litres every day in state.
Whereas the current milk supply is just 2.5 to 3 lakh litres. Jharkhand’s Medha brand is contributing only 30,000 litres to meet the total demand.
Since 13 years, the state dairy development could not develop its own set up to meet the packaged milk demand in the state. An official said, the state government had proposed for a major processing and packaging plant with installed capacity of one lakh litres at Hotwar in Ranchi.
However, the project is yet to take off. “Jharkhand is not running short of milk. The crisis has taken place due to lack of processing and packaging plants. However, we have renewed the agreement with National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and are hoping to start the proposed plant at Hotwar soon,” said Jharkhand dairy project director Mukul Prasad Singh.
Singh said that the Bihar government had enforced ban on heavy vehicles on Mahatma Gandhi Setu and Mokama Setu for repair works, which has badly affected the milk supply in Jharkhand.
“We will request the NDDB to supply milk from Mother Dairy, Kolkata from July 1. Besides, state’s Medha brand will also use the tag of NDDB’s Mother Dairy, which will be known as Mother Dairy Medha, to give boost to its sale,” he said. Singh said the department was expecting around 50 to 60,000 litres packaged milk from Kolkata.