Govt. to give school children excess milk

By Uditha Jayasinghe  

In response to the milk crisis the Government yesterday pledged to purchase all extra milk supplies in the Nuwara Eliya district and provide the excess to the school children in the region.

Acting Cabinet spokesman Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardana remarked that the President had ordered the extra milk to be given to school children in the area since storage facilities are an issue.

“The Government Agent in the area has already been notified to buy the extra milk and re-distribute it so that every schoolchild can have a glass of milk,” he said but was unable to describe the collection and processing mechanism when questioned by the media.

Abeywardana reiterated the claim that there was a political agenda behind the dairy farmer’s dumping and that the government would not be intimidated by the move. Nonetheless he failed to outline whether Milco would have an equipment upgrade to process more milk and if the infrastructure to process and distribute milk in Nuwara Eliya has been sufficiently established.

“If the project is successful in Nuwara Eliya we want to expand it to the entire country,” he stressed. Abeywardana noted that since 2008 Sri Lanka’s milk production has increased from 208 million litres to 255 million litres in 2011 due to the progressive policies followed by the government but admitted that distribution was now an issue.

“We will not let government efforts go to waste. Milco will purchase any excess. Not only did we increase quantity but we also raised prices from Rs.32 a litre to Rs.50. we can clearly see that politicians that used to call for higher prices are now protesting over unsold milk,” he charged.

He also mentioned that the government will hold discussions with private companies to increase milk purchases and emphasised that all action would be taken to protect farmers. “We do not see a similar situation in other milk producing areas, therefore it is clear that there is political motivation behind this.”