Comment: Maharashtra’s milk of human unkindness
Maharashtra’s milk producers are on the warpath. They want higher prices for the milk they produce. Their demand is fair. Every farmer has a right to get a fair price for his produce. But the farmers want the state to give them a subsidy of Rs.6 per litre, and the state has given in to their demand. This is absurd. Shockingly, even the Shiv Sena, a political partner in the ruling state government, supports the farmers’ demand for a state subsidy.
But why should the state give a subsidy? Does Gujarat’s government give its milk producers a subsidy? Does Tamil Nadu give Hatsun (India’s largest private sector dairy company) a subsidy, despite paying its farmer producers over Rs.26 a litre? Does Heritage – the dairy promoted by the family of Chandrababu Naidu (currentchief minister of Andhra Pradesh) get a subsidy? It too procures milk at over Rs.26 a litre. Gujarat, by far, pays the best prices to its farmers – of over Rs.30.4 per litre.