Amit Shah, the Union Minister for Home and Cooperation, inaugurated Mega Dairy in Mandya today. On the occasion were dignitaries like Nirmalanandanatha Mahaswamiji, the 72nd Pontiff of Sri Adichunchanagiri Mahasamsthana Math, Mandya, Shri Basavaraj Bommai, the Karnataka Chief Minister, Shri HD Deve Gowda, and Shri Pralhad Joshi, the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Coal.
He said the whole country stands with the Prime Minister in this hour of grief as he condoled the death of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mother. According to the Union Home and Cooperation Minister, since independence, farmers have demanded a separate Ministry of Cooperation. In his remarks, he thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for creating a separate Ministry of Cooperation to help farmers. Shah said he wanted to tell cooperative workers across the country that the Government of India won’t treat them unfairly from the inaugural platform of Mandya Mega Dairy.
According to the Union Cooperation Minister, the mega-dairy opened today will process 10 lakh liters of milk per day and can increase to 14 lakh liters. He said 10 lakh liters of milk processed bring prosperity to lakhs of farmers. In Karnataka, the cooperative dairy is doing really well, said Shri Shah. In Karnataka, there are 15,210 village-level cooperative dairies, with 26.22 lakh farmers delivering milk daily, and Rs 28 crore is deposited into 26 lakh farmers’ accounts through 16 district-level dairies.
In 1975, around 66,000 kg of milk was processed daily in Karnataka, but now more than 82 lakh kg are processed daily and 80% of the total turnover goes to farmers. He said the White Revolution in Gujarat has changed the fortunes of farmers, and through Amul, about 36 lakh women get 60,000 crores in their bank accounts every year. He said he wanted to assure all the farmer brothers and sisters of Karnataka that Amul and Nandini will work together to create primary dairies in every village of Karnataka. In three years there won’t be a single village in Karnataka that doesn’t have one. Shri Amit Shah said the government has decided that the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and Ministry of Cooperation will set up a primary dairy in every panchayat in the country within three years, and a complete action plan has been drafted. By connecting the farmers of the country with the White Revolution, he said, two lakh primary dairies will be established at the village level in three years. This will make India a big milk exporter.
Amul will be providing technical support, cooperative sector support, and overall functioning support to the Karnatakaka Milk Federation, and the Ministry of Cooperation will handle all its requirements, said the Union Home and Cooperation Minister. Gujarat and Karnataka can work together for the milk-producing farmers of the whole country, he said. During the year, the Union Cooperation Minister thanked the Karnataka government for depositing Rs 1,250 crore directly into the bank accounts of milk producers through DBT at the rate of Rs 5 per liter. Shri Amit Shah said that the government led by Shri Bommai is crediting Rs. 1,250 crores annually through DBT to the accounts of milk-producing farmers and also to remove malnutrition among children through the Ksheer Bhagya scheme, milk is being provided to 65 lakh children in 51,000 government schools and 39 lakh children in 64,000 Anganwadis. Shri Amit Shah congratulated the Chairman of the Mandya Milk Producers Committee for his efforts to increase the income of all the farmers of the Mandya district through dairy.
