National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) would provide the financial and technical support to Punjab in setting up 12 milk plants with an estimated outlay of about Rs 900 crore.
The announcement was made by the NDDB chairman Maneesh Shah, with an aim to bail out Punjab’s farmers from financial crisis by supplementing their income to lead to another white revolution in the state, after two-day-long deliberations held at Board’s head office at Anand City, Gujarat with the state Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development and Fisheries Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal.
Dhaliwal said that NDDB will work with Punjab Government to arrange financial assistance and for providing technical assistance as required. “As there are already 11 milk plants, covering 6,000 villages in the State, this would increase the number of milk plants to 23 and will cover a total 12,000 villages of the state. With this, additional 10 lakh litres of milk would be procured per day,” he said.
“Apart from this, in order to overcome the problem of pollution and to provide cheaper feed to the dairy farmers, Punjab Government would establish Total Mixed Ration plant at Amritsar on the lines of two plants successfully operational in Ganganagar and Kolhapur, at an estimated outlay of Rs 80 crore for which NDDB would provide all necessary assistance and this would also solve the problem of burning crop residues,” he added.
The Minister further said that for providing dairy education on the lines of NDRI, NDDB has assured full support for setting up such an institute in Punjab.