City's only government milk parlour moribund!

State-of-the-art two milk vendor machines of milk parlour haven't ever put to service!

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Nov 29: Inefficiency on the part of Dispur, time and again, has left an impression that Assam is no land of milk and honey in so far as dairy industry is concerned. One of the victims of this inefficiency is a milk parlour, now gasping for life.

Set up around five years back under the Directorate of Dairy Development, Assam, the parlour had an outlet for pasteurized milk, cream, curd, panir, yoghurt etc., under the Town Milk Supply Scheme. It did have a roaring business back in the day when it had to procure 2,500 litres of milk daily, selling milk products worth near about Rs 1 lakh daily. It was the time when the Central Dairy under Town Milk Supply Scheme was being run in full swing. The parlour used to procure milk from Central Dairy. By not allocating funds Dispur did sound the death knell of Central Dairy, so also of the milk parlour. Now the parlour, being manned by just seven employees, is gasping for live, selling products of around Rs 300 daily. Against 2,500 litres of milk procured daily earlier, it now procures 120 litres for a few customers who still keep visiting the outlet for milk products. This meagre quantity of milk yields 10 kg curd and ten kg panir and yoghurt. It, however, does not sell milk. The parlour runs dry of milk.       

Talking to this reporter, an employee of the parlour said: “Ours is a sad tale. This parlour came up right in front us some five years back. Now, we’re witnessing it gasping for life. We’ve lost all hopes. The fate which the Central Dairy has met makes it crystal clear that Dispur is not going to revive this parlour. The government is interested to run even Central Dairy under PPP mode. We’ve also hard that Dispur isn’t interested for dairy projects in urban areas. It’s interested for the development daily projects in rural areas.”

On the reasons behind the milk parlour coming to such a pass, the employee said: “The parlour had a roaring business back in the day, making sales of milk and milk products worth around Rs 1 lakh. The products of this parlour had a reputation of its own. Consumers did rush to us, especially during the Bihu, various other festivals and pujas. Dispur being reluctant to pump in funds for the dairy schemes in the State sounded the death knell of Central Dairy, so also of this milk parlour. When considered the grand scheme of things which Dispur has its eyes set on, the closure of this parlour is inevitable. Once thriving Central Dairy is also being planned to be run under PPP mode.”  The employee further said: “The parlour was an ambitious project with two state-of-the-art machines – Milk Vendor. Such machines can supply silk and milk products as and when a consumer pays money. Its functioning is something like ATMs supplying hard cash to a bank customer. However, the sad part of the tale is that the two sophisticated machines haven’t ever been put to service. Being left out unused for years the metal in the machines rusted. They may go under the hammer.”