Local milk producers to be roped in to run bulk milk coolers in Himachal: Chief Minister

Shimla, Aug 26 (PTI) Local milk producers in Himachal Pradesh will be entrusted with the work of running bulk milk coolers and for this, the government will give them commission, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu told the state Assembly on Tuesday.

He was intervening in the matter raised by BJP MLA from Ani Lokendra Kumar about the "wastage of thousands of litres of milk due to a technical fault in the milk chilling plant" in his constituency.

In the original reply to the question, Agriculture Minister Chandra Kumar said that information was received about a sudden technical fault in the milk cooler, but later it was found out that there was no fault.

"There was no voltage due to the single line of the Electricity Board due to which milk got spoiled and the quality of the milk was poor," he said.

The minister said that the secretary of the cooperative society threw the milk in the drain without permission, for which he has been given a notice.

He said that the officials of the cooperative societies have been told to maintain the coolers and other machines properly so that such an incident does not happen in future. All the plant heads have been instructed to work properly.

He said that 221 producers have suffered a loss of Rs 77,000 due to the throwing of milk in the drain.

The chief minister said that local milk producers in the state will be entrusted with the work of running bulk milk coolers and will be given a commission for it.

The capacity of bulk milk coolers should be increased so that farmers are benefited, the MLA had said, adding that the capacity of the bulk milk cooler under Nirmand is 5,000 litres and urged that a milk cooler plant of 15,000 litres is needed in Ani. PTI BPL RT RT