KARACHI, April 7: The city is likely to face an acute shortage of milk following the decision taken by all associations of dairy farmers to observe an indefinite strike from Monday evening in protest against the city government’s drive to ensure observance of the official rates of milk.

The city government has fixed the milk rate at Rs34 per litre at the retail level but the retailers have been charging Rs40-42 per litre in different parts of the city since April 1.

The dairy farmers effected the new rate unilaterally, citing a hike in the prices of cattle-feed as the major reason. However, the city government launched a strict campaign against overcharging. A number of retailers have been arrested and heavy fines imposed on others to check overcharging.

The matter of a rate acceptable to both the city government and dairy farmers has been lingering on for more than a year and the issue was referred to the Sindh High Court for an amicable settlement but found no practicable solution.

Shaukat Mukhtar of the

Karachi Dairy Farmers Association said on Monday that representatives of various dairy farmers associations had now decided to start an indefinite strike “in protest against the city government’s highhandedness against dairy farmers.”

He condemned the city government for conducting raids on dairy farms along with the Muhafiz Force personnel.

“Many of our colleagues have been arrested and forced to pay fines,” he said, adding that milk containers were being confiscated and taken to Lea Market for auctioning the milk for Rs20-22 per litre.”

He said dairy farmers had already incurred unprecedented losses due to the action being taken by city government officers in different parts of the city for two days.

“Much of the confiscated milk gets spoiled by the time it reaches Lea Market but the city government doesn’t pay compensation to the traders concerned,” he said. He questioned the city government’s authority to auction the confiscated commodity.

Mr Mukhtar said it was absolutely an unjustifiable act of fixing the retail price of milk at Rs34 per litre without taking into consideration the rates of animal feed that had gone up many times.

When asked whether the dairy farmers had approached the city government to sort out the matter, he said: “No CDGK officer appeared willing to listen to our grievances.” However, he added, meetings were held with some PPP MNAs, who had assured them of support.

The associations which have supported observance of the indefinite strike include the Dairy Farmers Association (Cattle Colony, Landhi) which fulfills 90 per cent of the city’s demand for milk, the Al-Momin Cooperative (Gadap), Nagori Cooperative (Super Highway), Bilal Cattle Colony Association (Korangi) and Surjani Town Cattle Colony Association.