TN CM Palaniswami defends milk price hike, says costs have gone up in 5 yrs

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Sunday defended the governments move to increase milk prices by ₹6 per litre stating that in the last five years prices have gone up across all sectors.

The AIADMK government on Saturday announced a revision of milk prices with procurement prices going up by ₹4 per litre for cows milk and by ₹6 per litre for buffalo milk. Besides, the retail selling price of milk across variants was also increased by the government by ₹6 per litre. The previous revision in milk prices was in 2014, when the state government hiked it by ₹10 per litre following demands from milk producers.

Opposition parties including the DMK, Congress and Amma Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam leader TTV Dhinakaran slammed the governments move and demanded a rollback of the hike. Responding to a query on the charges made by the opposition parties, Palaniswami said the Dairy Development Minister (KT Rajenthra Balaji) had requested him to increase the milk procurement prices as it had not been revised in the last five years.

“During the five year gap, the prices of cattle feed, maintenance charges increased. It was due to these reasons, the government decided to increase the milk procurement prices,” he told reporters at the airport here. Palaniswami said the government decided increase the selling price of milk per litre by ₹6 per after calculating the procurement price and retail price.

“Everyone know that prices have gone up across sectors in the last five years. When that is the situation, (don’t you think) it is also necessary to increase the price of milk procurement?” he shot back.