No move to hike milk price: Pawar

New Delhi, Jan 22 (ANI): Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has denied any move to hike milk prices.

Talking to reporters here on Thursday, Pawar blamed the media for creating confusion over milk prices.

"There is no proposal regarding the milk price. Media has raised an irrelevant matter. What I had said is that India is the largest producer of milk in the world ... The growth of milk production in our country is four percent, it is more than the agriculture output, but we need to increase it," he said.

He said this a day after he announced that prices of milk are set to rise due to mismatch in demand and supply.

Earlier, he had pointed the finger of blame at the state governments, saying they had not done enough to increase the production of milk.

The government, struggling to tame food inflation, which was hovering near 20 percent in December, said the country had adequate grain stocks, and ruled out rice imports that seemed likely after the worst monsoon in 37 years ravaged paddy fields in 2009. (ANI)