MLC Girkar flays own govt over pending wages in Mahanand Dairy

BJP MLC criticizes own party-led Maharashtra govt over handling of workers' issues at Mahananda Dairy, as state plans to hand over to NDDB.

Mumbai: Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) member of legislative council (MLC) Bhai Girkar on Thursday criticised the state government led by his own party, the Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) over its handling of workers’ issues at Mahananda Dairy, the federation of milk producers at the district and block level. The government has decided to hand over the milk cooperative, which produces milk, lassi, chhas, butter, cheese, paneer, sweets and other milk products, to the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) claiming it is trying to revive the loss-making brand. The dairy’s daily collection has dropped from over nine lakh litre per day in 2005-06 to 80,000 litre now.

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Speaking in the legislative council, Girkar drew attention to the pending wages of 560 workers at the cooperative who had opted for voluntary retirement.

“These workers have not been paid since the last seven months,” he said. “The wife of one the workers sat on a fast-unto-death two months ago. Government representatives met her after a week and promised to resolve the matter within a month. Buit three months have passed since and nothing has happened. The state of workers is not good. They are facing hunger. I demand justice for the workers.”

The head office of the milk cooperative is located on a 50-acre plot adjacent to the Western Express Highway in Goregaon East. The opposition has criticised the government’s move to hand it over to the Gujarat-based NDDB as yet another instance of shifting the state’s businesses to Gujarat and handing over the land in Goregaon to a favoured builder.

Earlier, on Wednesday, the 18-member board of directors of Mahanand resigned from their posts to facilitate the handover. The NDDB had mandated dissolution of the existing board and a soft loan of ₹253.57 crore from the state government to rejuvenate Mahananda Dairy. Though the state insisted on continuation of the existing board comprising a relative of dairy development minister Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and other MLAs from the ruling alliance, its request was turned down by the dairy development board.