Vijayawada: Protest staged against milk price hike

Vijayawada: Protesting against the hike in milk price, the city unit of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) staged a protest demonstration in front the milk products factory here on Saturday before submitting a memorandum to the management of the factory.

People of various areas, including Vambay colony, AVS Reddy Road, Fire Station Road, Santinagar, Patelnagar, LBS Nagar, Moghalrajapuram, Patamata, Ramalingeswarnagar, Ranigari Thota, Krishnalanka, Bhramarambapuram and other areas in the city staged protest demonstrations while sticking to social distancing rules

CPI-M State executive committee member Ch Babu Rao in a statement here on Saturday recalled that the State government announced that the prices of essential commodities should not be hiked at a time when the people are facing problems due to lockdown. In spite of the government instructions, the milk price was hiked by Rs 2 to Rs 4 per litre hitting hard the people.

If the milk price was hiked by the cooperative societies which are under government control, how the private traders could be controlled from hiking prices, he wondered.

Milk is an essential commodity and necessary for people to get nutrition in the backdrop of the outbreak of Covid-19, he said and appealed to the government to roll back the prices of milk immediately.

He said that the government hiked liquor prices to discourage people from drinking alcohol. He wondered whether that the government also hiked milk price only to discourage people from buying milk.

Babu Rao said that various welfare schemes announced by the government were not being implemented. For instance, the Rs 500 additional allowance for the aged, widows, single women and physically challenged was not given, he pointed out.