ANANTAPUR: The State Government is contemplating to set up bulk milk-cooling centres in all mandals in the district to give a thrust to alternative income generation activities and help people tackle the frequent drought conditions. They are likely to become operational from April 2007 with own buildings.

District Collector D. Kadmiel on Wednesday stated that the State Government had been considering dairy farming as one of the important tools in poverty alleviation in drought-prone areas like Anantapur. It was also planning to chalk out milk routes to improve and streamline procurement.

The district has 19 bulk milk-cooling centres and except the one at Gooty, all the centres are functioning with efficiently. Each cooling centre handles 2,000 to 5,000 litres of milk per day. It is now likely to be improved further with the better planning of milk routes.

In all, 70,000 litres of milk is now procured per day through the cooperative system in the district. It is proposed to entrust milk procurement completely to woman self help groups and bulk-cooling centres' operation to mahila samakhyas.

Sites to be provided

The administration will provide sites to samakhyas and the construction of buildings will be funded under `Indira Kranti Patham'. The equipment will be provided by the AP Dairy Development Cooperative Federation, the Collector stated. Families supplying milk to the cooling centres will be given smart cards. Construction of all the buildings will be completed by March-end and the new bulk milk-cooling centres will begin functioning from April.

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