Bengaluru, July 2 : The Karnataka government on Tuesday celebrated a milestone of producing 1 crore litres of milk daily by performing a special worship ceremony for the cow (gomata) and its calf in Bengaluru.





Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who performed the worship, expressed happiness over the development, stating it was a significant milestone in the history of the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF).



"Last June, our daily milk production was 90 lakh litres. Now, we have reached 1 crore litres per day," the Chief Minister said.



He said that the KMF is receiving 1 crore litres of milk daily which is a historic milestone.



'As the former Animal Husbandry minister, I took measures to hand over milk unions to dairy farmers. KMF is a farmers' organisation,' the Chief Minister said.



He said that there are 16,000 societies and 15 unions which sell milk in the state.



'To commemorate the achievement of production of 1 crore litres daily, 50 ml of additional milk is being provided to customers in every packet of Nandini milk sold,' the Chief Minister said.



He added that the government cannot refuse to purchase milk from farmers, and the increased quantity is aimed at supporting them.



'The opposition, without understanding this, claims that milk prices are being hiked. I believe they don't stand for the farmers' interests,' the Chief Minister said.



He added that the government provides a subsidy of Rs 5 for every litre of milk, amounting to Rs 5 crore daily, Rs 150 crore monthly, and Rs 1,800 crore annually.



'This subsidy was increased from Rs 2 to Rs 5 during my tenure to help farmers. If milk prices are hiked, it will benefit farmers. Karnataka's milk prices are lower than all other states, and we provide milk at a cheaper price,' the Chief Minister said.



He also mentioned that the previous BJP government had pending milk subsidies of Rs 700 crore for farmers and is now blaming the Congress government.



/IANS