WITH AFFECTION: Minister for Public Works H.D. Revanna and Minister for Agriculture Bandeppa Kashempur wear woollen blankets gifted to them by the Humnabad Kurubara Sangha in Humnabad on Saturday.

Bidar: The dreams of the people of Bidar to have a separate milk union for the district seem to have been belied after Chairman of the Karnataka Milk Federation H.D. Revanna ruled out splitting the Gulbarga-Bidar milk union.

Mr. Revanna was in Humnabad to inaugurate a new sub-division office of the Gulbarga Electric Supply Company. He said the KMF would not consider creating a separate union for Bidar, as it was not was "not feasible." The Minister, however, assured that the KMF would try to explore markets in neighbouring States.

The demand for a separate milk union for Bidar is more than three-decades-old. The union collects 30,000 litres of milk from Bidar and 3,500 litres of milk from Gulbarga every day. However, the market for milk in Gulbarga is significantly larger than in Bidar.

This demand and supply situation is the reason behind maintaining a combined union of two districts, is what KMF officials say.

Milk producers and non-governmental organisations said that separate unions for Gulbarga and Bidar districts would benefit both the districts.

While in Gulbarga, it will lead to more production, in Bidar it will lead to strengthening processing and marketing of milk.

"It will also help the KMF explore markets in border cities such as Hyderabad and Nanded," says Kalyanrao Patil, president of the Nittur Trust. The trust monitors the KMF's "Support to training and employment programme for women" (STEP) that helps poor women set up small dairies.

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