More and more people are fast becoming a part of a drive to get "Bharat Ratna", the highest civilian honour of the nation, for Verghese Kurien, the father of "White Revolution" in the country.
Around 6.5 lakh farmers of Anand-based Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Ltd, popularly known as Amul dairy, have decided to join the campaign demanding award of Bharat Ratna to Kurien.
"Kaira Union today passed a resolution in its annual general meeting (AGM) that the member farmers of the union will support "Bharat Ratna for Kurien" campaign launched by the former students of Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA)", Ramsinh Parmar, chairman, Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union.
It may be mentioned here that IRMA alumni have launched an agressive campaign demanding the highest civilian honour to the doyen of dairy cooperative movement.
The students plan to send a petition to the president and the prime minister of India seeking award of ‘Bharat Ratna’ to Kurien in recognition for his immense contribution.
So far, 3,718 people have already signed the petition posted only. The member farmers of Kaira union have further strengthened the effort of former IRMA students.
Meanwhile, the sales turnover of Amul dairy has surged by 28 per cent to Rs. 1,378 crore for the fiscal 2008-09 as compared to Rs. 1,077 crore turnover in fiscal 2007-08.
The dairy procured 48 crore litres of milk during 2008-09, which shows a rise of 16 per cent over the previous fiscal. Meanwhile, the highest daily milk procurement reached a level of 17.8 lakh in a day.
"Now we plan to increase it to 20 lakh litres next year", said Ramsinh Parmar, chairman, Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union, which aims to take this procurement at 25 lakh litres over the period of next three years.
