Procurement prices of milk hiked for second time in a month

Chennai, Feb 15 (PTI): The Tamil Nadu government todayhiked milk procurement prices for the second time in a month,but said the burden would not be passed onto consumers.

The decision to hike procurement price of cow''s milk by Rs1.36 and 80 paise for buffalo''s milk was arrived at the end ofa meeting between the government and different milk producers''associations, an official press release here said.

A litre of cow''s milk supplied by state-run Aavin will nowcost Rs 18 and buffalo''s milk to Rs 26 from Rs 25.20 but theburden will not be passed on to the consumer, the releasesaid, adding it will come into effect from Wednesday.

The government was represented by Ministers Arcot NVeeraswamy, K Ponmudi and U mathivanan and the talks were heldafter Chief Minister M Karunanidhi called the agitating milkproducers for talks on Monday.

The milk producers had gone on a week-long stir pressingfor hike in procurment prices, with political partiesincluding AIADMK and Congress backing their demand and urgingthe government to hold talks and amicably settle the issue.

The government had hiked the procurement prices only lastmonth but the producers had went on stir demanding for morehiking citing the increasing input costs.