Team Herald
PONDA: The ongoing tussle between Goa Dairy (GD) farmers and its Administrator Arvind Khutkar over the recent hike over the cattle feed prices escalated on Wednesday with the former protesting outside GD’s premises.
The farmers who have been protesting against the hike of Rs 4 per kg and have called for its immediate roll back were not satisfied with the administrator’s response that he had no power to roll it back as it had been approved by the government. Finally, both parties agreed to take the matter to Chief Minister (CM) Pramod Sawant and a meeting has been convened with the CM at 11 am on January 30.
It is to be noted that GD is a private body of farmers and the stakeholders are curious whether the CM would provide aid or grants to GD. On the other hand GD has been facing a deficit of Rs 4 crores.
The farmers, who have been staging an agitation since January 16, the day the hike was implemented, have complained that it has now become too expensive for them to carry out dairy farming. Khutkar however said that the price hike was necessary to prevent further losses and that the decision had been taken by studying all the aspects and taking the stakeholders into confidence.
The farmers, have demanded that as an alternative, there should be an equal price hike in the milk procurement rates of farmers.
The GD Administration in response to the farmer’s demands had submitted a memorandum to the government demanding grants to the functioning of the GD plant. According to Khutkar, if GD receives a one-time grant, then it will be possible for them to return money back to the farmers in proportion to the price hike period.
It may be recalled that the Administrator as well as Cooperation Minister Govind Gaude, had earlier suggested that GD’s general body that consists of the Chairmen of 180 milk societies, take a decision on reducing prices of the GD cattle feed plant in view of the losses suffered.
On a different note, the GD employees have also been demanding for the implementation of the seventh pay scale. However, the Registrar of Societies (RCS) and Cooperation Minister had said that since GD is a privately-owned body, such a decision had to be taken by the GD’s general body. Some of the farmers have also blamed the excess recruitment of staff as one of the reasons along with bad management for the losses suffered by GD.
