Bengaluru, Oct 29 (IANS) Karnataka Chief Minister D. K. Shivakumar on Thursday justified the state’s milk price hike, stating that the decision was taken to “prevent losses to farmers” who had been demanding a price revision for the past couple of years.
When asked about the Rs 8 increase in the price of Nandini milk in the cabinet meeting, he stated, “The government is helping farmers. Farmers are important to us.”
When asked whether the milk price hike would be a burden on the public, he questioned, “If there are farmers, we can drink milk. Otherwise, is it possible to drink milk? Our minister has already spoken about this, and there is nothing more to add.
Prices of everything, including plastic packaging, diesel, and petrol, have increased. The transportation cost of milk has also gone up. There was a demand to increase the price by Rs 12 to 15. We made this decision after consulting with everyone,” he said.
“People pay Rs 30–35 for a litre of water. Compared to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, the price of milk in our state is lower. Since the price was low here, milk was also being routed to Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. That needed to be prevented. Tirupati buys Nandini ghee. They could buy it locally, but they trust Nandini. There is high demand for Nandini ghee for Mysore Pak and other items. In addition to this, financial incentives are being provided by the government. The government took this decision because farmers were facing losses,” he clarified.
“All MLAs had demanded a milk price hike across party lines in both the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council. A decision could not be taken earlier due to elections. Now that elections are over, the decision has been made,” he said.
When asked about whether bus fares would be increased, he said, “The Transport Department has suffered heavy losses, and there were no funds even for diesel. The government is providing free bus travel for women. Therefore, the Transport Department itself has been asked to decide on this matter.”
–IANS
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