The Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (KCMMF), which owns the popular dairy brand Milma, has come out strongly against the Centre’s move to bring in private sector representation in the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), terming it as an attempt to infringe on the autonomy of the body.
The proposal to induct representatives from private dairies in the director board of NDDB will seriously harm the co-operative dairy movement in the country, said KS Mani, Chairman, KCMMF.
The Ministry has sought suggestions and comments on the proposed amendments, which also includes a proposal to appoint an additional director representing private dairy industry, to be nominated for three years. The directors nominated to NDDB will also be ex-officio directors in the boards of subsidiary companies.
Farmers to be hit
Milma will convey to the Centre its strong reservations against the proposed amendments as they would seriously affect the autonomy of NDDB and harm the interests of millions of dairy farmers and the dairy cooperative movement as a whole. Milma will also seek the intervention of the state government to exert pressure on the Centre to abandon the move by putting across its stand on the issue, he added.
Despite being a largely agrarian population, India became the world’s leading milk producing nation purely due of the systematic, scientific and visionary initiatives of NDDB. Instead of inducting representatives from the private sector dairies into NDDB, the Centre should urge the private dairies to utilize the vast technical knowledge and rich domain expertise, by drafting in top officials of NDDB into their director boards, Mani said.
NDDB was formed with the objective of pan-India development of the dairy cooperative sector and the success of Amul in Gujarat was so influential that the soul and spirit of the model were replicated throughout the country as Anand pattern, he said.
The proposed amendment to bring in private representation can hamper the board’s core function of ‘replicating Anand pattern dairy cooperatives across the country’, he said.