When Indian Cooperative asked Amul’s MD R S Sodhi to send a pic of him depicting the MD working from home in the lockdown phase for a story, Sodhi laughed aloud on the phone. He said “We are working from the office”.
And now Amul’s milk tanker drivers are telling stories of how they cater to the needs of people, it touches one and all. Amul drivers say “a soldier cannot run away from the battle field because bullets are raining”.
GCMMF, a pride of dairy co-operatives in the country cannot shirk its job as it has to reach out to thousands of towns every morning. Milk tanker drivers drive up to hundreds of kilometres every day to make the essential items available to us. They evoke faith in humanity as well as co-op model!
Giving details of the daily operations, Sodhi says there are about 5000 milk tanker drivers who are transporting more than 400 lac litres of milk every day.
These drivers collect milk from 18700 village cooperative societies and take them to 80 dairy plants spread across the country.
“They also take milk and dairy products to over 1000 cities and towns across India. They are the backbone of India’s milk supply chain. We at Amul salute our Heroes!”, a short film on them made by Amul pays tributes to them in these words.
“Milk tanker drivers are as important as doctors, Nurses, emergency workers. They provide milk to the whole India through transportation. And for them the day is beginning with milk only”, tweeted a social media activist lauding them.
One of the drivers Manoj Kumar Yadav who operates out of Anand says he carries 3k litre of milk every day from Anand to Birar and Pune in Maharashtra. Another one named Rohit Bhardwaj says how we can sit idle in our homes when small children need milk every morning.
Hitesh Bhai, yet another driver says as a soldier does not run-away fearing bullet shots so do we feel; when the country needs our services in these trying times we cannot falter.
Harish Bharot, one of the drivers thanks Amul management for daily supply of the essential safety items which include masks, sanitizers etc.
Readers would recall that in the very beginning of lockdown when the nation was anxious for continued supply of milk, GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi had assured there would be no shortage of milk in the country. He has not walked back on his words. Kudos to the pride of cooperatives!
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