The leading English daily of Patna Times of India has, in a report, accused Comfed, owner of popular brand Sudha of favouring a private dairy in Moradabad by incurring huge losses.
The report created storm in the state capital forcing the Managing Director Mrs Harjot Kaur to call a press conference Thursday evening.
One of the senior officers told Indian Cooperative “the report in the paper is concocted, half truth and a lie. Since the reporter was not entertained he started this disinformation campaign”.
The officer however requested not to be quoted by name as Madam (MD) alone is authorized to talk to the press.
Another officer Mr R K Mishra , accountant in the dairy cooperative and present in the press conference was in mortal fear to speak a word as to what defence the MD had put forth in the press conference.
The paper says “ The Bihar State Milk Cooperative Federation Limited (Comfed) is virtually ‘milching’ milk consumers in the native state by selling pasteurized Sudha milk for Rs 33 to Rs 43 per litre, but supplying to a private dairy at Joya in Moradabad for just Rs 25 per little, including transportation cost. The beneficiary of the Comfed’s largesse, incidentally, was selected without floating tender.
According to an inquiry conducted by Bihar government, the Vaishal-Pataliputra Milk Union (VPMU), also known as Patna Dairy Project (PDP), collects milk containing 4% fat and 8.5% SNF (solid-not-fats) from the primary milk cooperative societies at the rate of Rs 24.69 per litre. It spends 70 paise and Rs 1 per litre on local transportation and processing, respectively. Thus, the total cost of the pasteurized milk comes to Rs 26.39 per litre. The same milk is sold for Rs 33 to Rs 43 per litre in Bihar.
“But the PDP supplies milk to a private dairy at Joya at the rate of Rs 25 per litre on FOR (freight on rail/road) basis which also includes Rs 4.12 per litre cost of transportation. Thus, the PDP gets just Rs 20.88 per litre from Joya dairy after delivering pasteurized milk at its doorstep, incurring a loss of Rs 5.51 per litre (the difference between Rs 26.39 cost and Rs 20.88 it gets),” the inquiry report said.
“Since the VPMU supplies 20 thousand litre per day (TLPD) to Joya dairy at a loss of Rs 5.51 per litre, it suffers an estimated annual loss of Rs 4.02 crore per annum,” the report says.
Like the VPMU, Rajendra Prasad Milk Union-Barauni supplies 60 TLPD, Mithila Milk Union-Samastipur 60 TLPD, Shahabad Milk Union-Ara 45 TLPD and Tirhut Milk Union-Muzaffarpur 15 TLPD to the Joya dairy. Thus, the total pasteurized milk supplied from five milk unions to Joya dairy is 200 TLPD.
According to Comfed sources, the loss to different milk unions varies from Rs 5 to Rs 7 per litre due to difference in the rate of procurement and transportation and the total estimated annual loss to the five milk unions (because of low rate to Joya dairy) calculates to around Rs 40 crore, the paper quotes.
Ironically, the Comfed increased the rate of different types of pasteurized milk in Bihar and Jharkhand by Rs 2 to 3 per litre earlier this month itself. Five months back in December last year too, the milk prices in Bihar were hiked by Rs 2 per litre. These hikes defy logic if one takes into account the special rate at which the private firm at Joya is being sold the same milk, TOI reports.
But Comfed MD Harjot Kaur won’t explain the discriminatory pricings. Asked why the Joya dairy was being benefited, the IAS official first sought to know about the source of information. Pressed further, she banged the phone, saying, “You publish whatever you want”, the paper concludes.
