To enable consumers get pure milk at cheaper rates, the Punjab Government on Wednesday decided to set up ‘milk mandis’ in selected districts of the State. “The concept of milk mandis has been conceived on similar lines with kisan sabzi mandis,” said the State Dairy Development and Animal Husbandry Minister Gulzar Singh Ranike said after holding a meeting with the senior officers of the department.
The Minister said that it was a general complaint of all the consumers that they didn't get pure milk after paying sizable amount from their pockets for the milk. “In first phase, milk mandis would be set up in selected districts and after the success of this scheme, these mandis would further be set in all the districts of the State,” he said.
Ranike said that the places in the first phase have been selected for considering the availability of dairy training centres and milk checking laboratories in that area. “After the identification of the land, the Government would set up milk booths and the milk producers would get the space in these booths at lesser rental,” he said.
The Minister said that this initiative of the Government would help the farmers to generate extra income. “In the initial phase, the success of these milk mandis is more likely at ludhiana, Amritsar, Sri Muktsar Sahib, Patiala, Roopnagar and other districts of the State,” he said.