Sikkim Milk Union cut down rates, dairy farmers stresses. Dairy farmers in Sikkim are panicking over the sudden decision to cut down milk procurement rates by the Sikkim Milk Union. State BJP president D.B. Chauhan on Saturday urged the Chief Minster P.S. Golay to intervene as, he said,
“Milk production in Sikkim has increased due to enhancement of rates and incentives by the SKM government for the farmers. But the sudden notification to decrease the milk procurement rates by Sikkim Milk Union, a State public undertaking, was cruel on the farmers.
They are panicked as there is no clarity, the government must work to address this issue urgently,” said Chauhan at a press meet here.
The Sikkim Milk Union (Sikkim Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Ltd) had recently cut down the milk procurement rates, a decision which was strongly opposed by the State BJP unit.
“The clarification from the officer concerned is not satisfactory as the replies were given more from a technical point of view and not from a humanitarian perspective.
The ground reality is that our dairy farmers have to undertake a lot of physical hardships. Their production cost is high as the price of cattle feed is increasing regularly,” said Chauhan.
Chauhan demanded the State government to form a committee to look into all these aspects. “The Chief Minister must also intervene and take inputs from the farmers also.
There is a vast potential in hotels and restaurants but there is no interest among the officials to take up marketing,” he said.
“We request the Chief Minister and minister concerned not to subscribe entirely to the files brought by the officials. They need to think beyond the files and place themselves in the shoes of the farmers,” said the State BJP president.
Citing a recent CAG report, Chauhan said among the 18 State public undertakings, 16 undertakings are running on great losses and draining the treasury of the State government.
He urged the State government to do internal audit and come up with revival measures for such sick units as public money is being wasted to meet the losses suffered.
BJP MLAs to unanimously raise public issues in Assembly: Chauhan
State BJP president D.B. Chauhan on Saturday said the BJP legislators would maintain a “unanimous” stand on various public-centric issues to be raised by them in coming Assembly sessions.
He, however, added that questioning the treasury bench in the Sikkim Legislative Assembly by the alliance members should not be automatically construed as “opposition”.
“We had a meeting with our party MLAs and given suggestions to them regarding the Assembly sessions. We have been getting feedback from the society over lack of collectiveness from our MLAs in the Assembly. The party has told them on the need to unanimously place public interest issues (in the Assembly).
Questioning the government on public related issues does not make one as an opposition. We are discussing on this and it is high time that we should be responsible as people have started questioning us,” said Chauhan at a press meet here on Saturday.
Chauhan, to a question, maintained that BJP is not a part of the State government and is only supporting the ruling SKM from outside. “We are not directly in the government and are only supporting the ruling party from outside. We are not in the decision making body of the State government,” he said.
The State BJP president said the party would be holding regular press meets to raise issues related with the people and shortcomings in government departments.
We will be now coming up in a serial manner with our stand on various issues, there is so much to say, he said.
Sikkim Milk Union Shows Lack Of Marketing Strategy
The State BJP president was critical of the Sikkim Milk Union regarding inadequate marketing to cater to the rising milk production in the State. “The Sikkim milk union should have prepared a marketing strategy for the surplus milk production in Sikkim.
Why they did not prepared a marketing strategy? There are so many hotels and restaurants that can be reached for selling milk products, why sell in Siliguri at low rates?,” he said.
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