Congress may skim cream off milk coop troubles

BEHRAMPORE: Here, don't tell the Trinamool it's no use crying over spilt milk. The Trinamool government's decision to scale down production in a milk cooperative has the Congress gleefully lapping up the opportunity.
Banking on the bitterness of the 65,000 families that depend on Bhagirathi Milk Producers' Union Ltd (BMPUL), Congress sees a chance to skim benefits in at least four assembly seats -Behrampore, Murshidabad, Nabagram and Beldanga.

BMPUL was part of the white revolution in Murshidabad in the early Seventies.But a slide began in 2012, a year after Mamata Banerjee came to government in 2011. Primary milk societies are drying up after BMPUL cut down its intake from a daily 1.8 lakh litres in peak season to just 1.4 lakh litres. SOme 65,000 families of dairy farmers that supply to the cooperative are distraught. They have no option apart from rolling beedis to stave off starvation.

Since 2012, the State Milk Federation has curtailed the requisition for milk from BMPUL, bringing it down to 42,000 litres a day. The sudden cut forced as many as 200 milk societies to shut shop. Milkmen are angry with the Trinamool government because the crisis coincides with Poribartan. To make matters worse, the government postponed elections to the society in October 2012. Congress is seizing this issue in Behrampore and Beldanga in particular.

"Things were running well when there was an elected body till 2012. BMPUL had a high intake capacity then. It used to arrange for artificial insemination, send vets, and pay dividends regularly . We used to run our families by selling 22-24 litres of milk a day at Rs 28 to Rs 34 a litre. Now it has deteriorated," said Ananda Mohan Ghosh of Shaktipur.

Joint secretary of the Congress-backed Murshidabad Jela Dugdha Utpadok Sangha Pijush Ghosh elaborated on how the "conspiracy" has been working. "The state cooperative is procuring more milk from middlemen avoiding societies. We launched a stir, led by Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury , last year against the discrimination," he said.Congress MLA Manoj Chakraborty raised the issue in the assembly as well.

Citu district president Tushar Dey , however, blames the Congress-run BMPUL."Bhagirathi flourished when the Left ran the society. It got ruined after the Congress-run board made some unnecessary appointments. Now Trinamool government is trying to destroy cooperative societies," Dey said.

Trinamool leader Ashoke Chakraborty said "The state government is not responsible for Bhagirathi's decay. The deterioration started after the market was opened to all brands like Amul, Metro and Mother Dairy.