Hyderabad: Milk industry gets shot in the arm; mega dairy to come up in city

Hyderabad: Animal Husbandry Minister T Srinivas Yadav on Tuesday said the government was establishing a mega dairy at Maheshwaram on the outskirts of the city.

The Minister was replying to a question on promotion of dairy industry in the State by Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) member S Ravi Shankar and others during the Question Hour in the Assembly on Tuesday.

The Minister said that demand was more and supply was less for milk in the State. The State needs 40 lakh litres per day including 20 lakh litres for Anganwadis and another 20 to 25 lakh litres for GHMC. However, the supply is just over one lakh litre before 2014.

The State has now reached seven lakh litres now because of the various steps taken by the government, said the Minister. He said that the government is bringing up a mega dairy at Ravirala at Maheshwaram on the outskirts of the city at the cost of Rs 445 crore. Already land is also acquired on lease for this purpose, he said, adding this would become a model for other States in the country.

The Minister said that the government provided Rs 4 per litre as incentive and this made the private dairies also to provide the same to the farmers. He urged farmers not to worry in case of delay in the payments stating that because of the Corona pandemic the payments have got delayed.

Srinivas Yadav said that the government is providing a 75 per cent subsidy to SC farmers. Regarding the branding of Vijaya Dairy, Yadav said that there is a huge demand for the Vijaya Dairy products and seeing this government started 500 parlours in the State during the last one year.

More outlets would also be opened up at different tourist spots in the State. Earlier the Vijaya Dairy used to depend on the state government but now the dairy is self-sustaining.