The Hindu : Karnataka News : Revanna seeks subsidy from governments on milk price

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 21, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Revanna seeks subsidy from governments on milk price

Special Correspondent

H.D. Revanna

BANGALORE: Public Works Minister H.D. Revanna, who is also chairman of the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), on Thursday appealed to the State and Union governments to provide a subsidy of Re. 1 each per litre of the milk produced by dairy farmers in the State.

Inaugurating the Rs. 12.42-crore hostel building in Bangalore built by the KMF and the district milk unions for the children of the dairy farmers, Mr. Revanna pointed out that Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were providing an annual subsidy of Rs. 300 crore and Rs. 200 crore respectively to the dairy sector.

Such subsidy was essential to provide remunerative prices to dairy farmers, he argued. In fact, a litre of packaged drinking water would cost Rs. 15 while a litre of milk was available at only Rs. 14, he noted and expressed concern that the farmers were finding it difficult to continue with dairy farming in such a situation.

To gear up its dairy sector to face the challenges, the State had prepared a Rs. 680-crore plan envisaging various development works to be taken up in the sector till 2015. Despite these odds, the dairy sector had registered growth in the State.

Mr. Revanna also announced that the State Government would develop the Krishnarajendra Engineering College in Bangalore at a cost of Rs. 43 crore. The works in this regard would commence in eight days.

Hostel

Now, the children of dairy farmers, pursuing higher education in Bangalore, are relieved of the burden of paying heavily for accommodation. The students’ hostel built exclusively for them by the Nandini Dairy Farmers’ Welfare Trust would take care of their accommodation at a nominal cost.

KMF managing director I. R. Ramalinge Gowda told The Hindu that at present the hostel could accommodate 500 students, a majority of them being girls. In the second phase, the intake would be increased to 1,000. Accommodation would also be provided to the working women, if their parents were dairy farmers, he noted.

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