TIRUPATI: Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh on Saturday categorically ruled out the possibility of reviving the now-defunct Chittoor Co-Operative Dairy in view of its accumulated losses to a tune of Rs. 150 crores. It was unviable and was already under liquidation, he said.

Addressing a press conference at the end of his two-day official visit to the temple city, the Minister said that on the other hand the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was ready to pump in fresh funds up to Rs.50 crores to further expand the Tirupati-based Balaji Dairy.

He said the legal hurdles in this regard had also been cleared and the signing of agreement was in the final stages. On the problem of capital gains tax, which also created a roadblock for the rejuvenation of Balaji Dairy, the Minister said he had already discussed it with the Union Finance Minister and added that the problem was almost sorted out. The Chief Minister also had already written to the Finance Minister, he said and hoped that the expansion of the Balaji dairy would come in handy to take the daily milk procurement in the district to the three lakh litres mark soon.

In a significant statement, the Minister noted that the dairy sector in Andhra Pradesh did not receive the attention it deserved to develop it as an alternative source of income to the debt-ridden farmers. He attributed the problems plaguing the dairy sector to the too much of importance given by the TDP Government to private dairies and said that while Chandrababu Naidu's Heritage Milk Products unit became a multinational, other units had folded up. He complemented the State for being the leader in the promoting non-pesticide crops and said that it was imperative in the context of most nations rejecting crops with traces of overuse of pesticides. He said though Rs. 500 crores worth of chillies were ready for export, the problem of over use of pesticides was posing a serious threat. He was, however, happy that as much as 2 lakh acres in the State was covered under the programme to cultivate non-pesticide cotton, chillies, paddy using only organic manure.

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