Visakha Dairy welcomes govt probe

The Visakhapatnam Co-operative Dairy (Visakha Dairy), the biggest cooperative dairy in Andhra Pradesh, has welcomed the Congress government's move to set up a house committee to probe into the alleged irregularities by the chairman and members of the co-operative dairy.

"I welcome the government's decision. I hope the house committee members will probe the allegations without any prejudice and partiality. We are ready to show our records anytime and to anyone, and our performance will show our honesty," Adari Tulasi Rao, chairman of Visakha Cooperative Dairy, told Business Standard.

Visakha Dairy, which is in sound financial position, is the only dairy in the state procuring about 3 lakh litres of milk every day from four coastal districts. It is paying nearly Rs 12.60 per litre of milk to farmers, and selling it to consumers at Rs 14.

"Actually, we have been running the dairy in a professional manner and making profits for the last several years. But because of political rivalry, some of the Congress and Communist Party leaders are raising false allegations to gain control of the dairy activities," he alleged.

"When I took charge as chairman in 1986, Visakha Dairy's turnover was only Rs 11 crore. Now it has increased to Rs 210 crore and the number of milk societies increased from 232 in 1986 to 704 now. The milk procurement levels were also enhanced from 30,000 litres a day to 3 lakh litres. We are sending Visakha dairy's milk even to Kolkata and Hyderabad. The Gujarat Cooperative Dairy is selling our milk under the 'Amul' brand and our milk products' sales have touched Rs 40 crore a year," Tulasi Rao said.

"To reduce the government agencies' control on the dairy's activities, the dairy shifted into a Mutually-Aided Cooperative Act-1995 by a resolution in a general body meeting in 1999. Later in 2004, the governing body has made another resolution in favour of converting the cooperative dairy into a private company in accordance with the Company Producers Act-2002. If it converts into a private company, there will be no control by state government. So to stop us, the state government has gone to court to stall our actions to become a private company," Tulasi Rao alleged.

"Any how, we are not bothered about the house committee. We are confident that nothing will happen by this political vendetta. Our institution's growth will not be prevented by these types of activities," he said.