In a bid to relieve the dairy farmers of Milkfed from the burden of debt and encourage them to usher in ‘white revolution’ by enhancing the milk production, Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today asked the Milkfed to explore ways for introducing One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme.
He was addressing a gathering of dairy farmers from 1024 milk societies affiliated to Milk Union Ropar and Milk Plant Mohali during a function for disbursement of Rs 7.85 crore as bonus and dividend out of the earnings of Milk Plant, Mohali for the years 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 here.
The Chief Minister asked the Milkfed to work out the modalities for immediately putting the mechanism of OTS in place to the Dairy farmers on the same pattern as introduced earlier in the Industrial sector by the state government.
Underscoring the need of diversification of agriculture due to squeezed margins of profitability from the traditional farming, Badal, as per an official release, called upon the farmers to switch over from the wheat/ paddy rotation to high value added crops and allied farming especially the Dairy as it was far more remunerative.
He said that it was a high time to adopt dairy and other allied farming professions because the agriculture has already reached a point of saturation and was unable to make both ends of the farmers meet in view of high cost of agriculture inputs and diminishing returns due to stagnated MSP.
He stressed on producing the clean milk at village level so that the finished products of excellent quality may be manufactured and maximum amount realized for serving the farmers. Badal also asked the Milkfed authorities to work out a strategy of marketing ‘Verka’ products in national and international market.
He said that he would soon take up the issue with the Union Ministries of Civil Aviation and Railways to allow the sale of premium ‘Verka’ products at all the Airports and Railway Stations.
Earlier, the Chief Minister inaugurated automatic Dairy plant installed at a cost of Rs 40 crore which would now enhance the existing handling capacity of Milk Plant Mohali from two lakh litres per day to five lakh liters milk per day.
By PTI | 25 Jul, 2014, 06.34PM IST
