Kerala requests TN to supply rice, milk

Chennai, Jan 19 (UNI) The Kerala government today requested the Tamil Nadu government to supply rice and milk to meet its immediate requirement.

Talking to newspersons here, Kerala Civil Supplies Minister C Divakaran said he had requested the Tamil Nadu government to supply rice, sugar and dhal and expressed hope that some of his demands would be met immediately.

The supply of these commodities was among the issues that came up for discussion during a meeting between Mr Divakaran and his Tamil Nadu counterpart E V Velu.

'' Mr Velu has assured to help us in this regard,'' the Minister said adding, ''our government has requested the Tamil Nadu government to supply 10,000 MT of Samba rice.'' ''I also met Animal Husbandry Minister Geetha Jeevan to find out how Tamil Nadu handled the milk supply and to solve the milk shortage problem in Kerala,'' he said.

Mr Divakaran said while most of the cows in Kerala gave only six litres milk on an average, cows in Tamil Nadu had managed to produce at least thrice that quantity.

''We will send a team to Tamil Nadu to study how cows in the state produce large quantity of milk,'' he said.

Mr Divakaran said the Kerala government had proposed to set up two high technology dairy centres in Wayanad and Idukki at a cost of Rs 200 crore each with over 2,000 cows in each facilities.

''Currently, we have shortage of 20 lakh litre milk per day,'' he said adding '' the Tamil Nadu government has reduced its supply of milk from one lakh litre to 20,000 litre.'' ''For now, we had requested the Tamil Nadu government not to reduce the quantum of milk that has being supplied to Kerala,'' he added.

UNI SNR AJ SW VC1901