Dharwad: The State government will supply milk to schoolchildren for five days a week starting from April 1, 2017 said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Speaking after laying the foundation stone for a milk powder unit with 30 tonne capacity and inaugurating an eight tonne boiler and coal shed facility at the Dharwad Milk Union (DMU) here on Saturday, Siddaramaiah said that at present schoolchildren were provided with free milk under the Ksheera Bhagya scheme thrice a week. From April 1, they will get milk for two more days a week. Besides tackling malnutrition, this scheme has helped enhancing attendance in schools, he said.
The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) produces 72 lakh litre milk everyday and efforts are on to raise the producton level to one crore litre a day in the next two years. Milk federation units have been asked to give importance in forming more number of milk organisations in the rural level and also develop cattle breed he said adding that the government will support dairy farmers, he said.
Referring the issue of regional imbalance, Siddaramaiah said as per the Nanjundappa Committee report, the government was spending Rs. 3,000 crore every year in addition to Rs. 1,000 crore to the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. He also said that maximum monetary help will be provided for the new milk powder unit whose estimated cost is Rs. 37.50 crore.
Speaker K B Koliwad, District in-charge Minister Vinay Kulkarni, Co-operative Minister H C Mahadev Prasad, MLA C S Shivalli, MLC Basavaraj Horatti, DMU President Neelakantha Asuti and others were present.
The new milk powder production unit will be functional in next six months, and the additional milk procured here will be turned into milk powder and supplied to all parts of north Karnataka. Mr Asuti said.
