Release ₹669.5 crore milk subsidy immediately in Karnataka
Claiming that the government’s unpaid dues towards support price for milk had reached ₹669.59 crore during the BJP regime in the State, Congress MLC Dinesh Gooligowda has urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar to take steps for immediate release of the outstanding amount.
Mr. Gowda, who dispatched letters to Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. Shivakumar on Tuesday in the regard, said the government pays a support price of ₹5 per litre, which is credited directly into the bank accounts of the farmers.
The support price paid by the government is helpful to the farmers to purchase fodder and other expenses they routinely incur. But, the earlier BJP government had not paid the support price to the cattle farmers for the last seven months, Mr. Gooligowda claimed.
The government owes each cattle farmer amounts ranging from ₹5,000 to ₹30,000 as support price, he said, while urging the government to release the dues at the earliest as it would not only help them in farm activities, but also to take care of other expenditure like payment of tuition fees of their children at the start of the academic year.
The government has to pay around ₹109 crore every month as support price for milk to cattle farmers across the State. Dues amounting to ₹109.9 crore for November 2022, ₹109.81 crore for December 2022, ₹107.89 crore for January 2023, ₹93.56 crore for February 2023, ₹93.89 crore for March 2023 and ₹93.67 for April 2023, besides other dues dating back to 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 had remained unpaid, he said in the statement.
Out of the total ₹669.59 crore outstanding amount in the State for milk support price, the dues towards farmers of Mandya were ₹72.34 crore, said Mr. Gooligowda, who is an MLC representing local bodies constituency of Mandya.
He urged the government to take necessary steps to release the outstanding amount at the earliest as the farmers, who are passing through difficult phase on account of rise in fodder prices, diseases afflicting the cattle, low yield of milk etc.