The agitation by Maharashtra dairy farmers is likely to be called off as the State government has agreed to the demand of ₹25 per litre being made the milk procurement cost.
The State government will provide ₹5 subsidy to the milk co-operatives, which will have to be passed on to the farmers. The State government will have to bear ₹75 crore as additional expenditure per month because of this decision.
On late Thursday evening, the decision was made at a meeting held by the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis at the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly in Nagpur.
The Minister of State for Dairy Development Arjun Khotkar said that effective July 21, the dairy co-operatives will have to pay ₹25 per litre as minimum procurement cost to the farmers.
For the last four days, the farmers have been demanding for a higher milk purchase price. In places such as Pune and Satara, there were reports of trucks being vandalised by the farmers.
Farmers led by Member of Parliament and Chief of Swambhimani Shetkari Sanghatana (SSS), Raju Shetti have been seeking ₹5 per litre rise in the milk procurement cost from co-operative and private dairies.
He has been in discussion with the State government and on Wednesday night had held talks with Maharashtra’s Water Resources Minister Girish Mahajan.
Earlier in the day, Shetti had told mediapersons that he was ready to withdraw the agitation if the milk purchase rate was fixed at ₹25 per litre.
The State government’s proposal to provide a subsidy of ₹2-3 per litre will benefit dairies and other stakeholders in the sector, but there are no guarantees that the subsidy will get passed on to the farmers.