Milk suppliers observe daylong hunger strike over unfair pricing by private companies

New Delhi, Apr 21 (ANI): Milk suppliers from across north India observed a day long hunger strike on Saturday to protest unfair pricing by private companies supplying milk and dairy products.

Mohan Singh Ahluwalia, a representative of dairy farmers, accused that central government of working in tandem with the private firms and hence, they are hesitating in taking action against them.

"Government is also involved with private companies in dairy scam worth 1.25 lakh core rupees. That is why till today the government had not issued any statement and has not submitted any investigation report," said Ahluwalia.

Hundreds of angry dairy farmers assembled at the Jantar Mantar and shouted anti government slogans, spilling milk on the roads to demonstrate their discontent.

Ahluwalia urged government to come out in their support and demanded that the companies should compensate them for the loss incurred by them and ensure that the milk is directly sold to the consumers.

"Middle men have been selling milk, which is adulterated with urea, dap, caustic soda to these private companies and that is sold to the consumers. If Delhi state government or central government is honest then they should provide farmers with milk Mandi in Delhi. If something like this happens, we can stop this inflation right now and the milk which is being sold at 40 rupees per litre, we will sell that at 34 rupees per litre," added Ahluwalia.

The protestors also slammed that country's dairy major Amul, which recently hiked the price of milk by rupees 2 per litre.

"We get 18 rupees per litre and that milk is sold at 40-45 rupees per litre despite being adulterated. It is very unfortunate that middlemen take away our share of money in the process. We are hopeful that government will understand us. Why do they not purchase milk at the rate of 40 rupees per litre directly from us. We are not able to recover our investment cost even when we are the ones who work so hard work. We spend 500 rupees per quintal on fodder to feed the cows and thousands of rupees in maintaining them," said Shahbuddin, a protestor.

On Wednesday, the milk suppliers had faxed a letter to Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh about the huge wealth amassed by private companies and complained that they were not adequately compensated by them.

They also mentioned that the private milk companies sold the milk at an increased price and they bought it from them at a much lower price.

The protestors have threatened to further intensify their agitation if the government failed to address their problems and they would launch a protest march towards the parliament on April 25. (ANI)