Butter, known as “makkhan” in local parlance, is believed to be the main political ingredient during elections. Candidates use it on their leaders who, in turn, lavish it on the voters.
But as election time draws near in UP, butter is running in short supply.
With Amul deciding to cut down production of milk products and concentrating on sale of milk, UP — one of the largest consumer of milk and milk products — is facing the crunch. Amul, incidentally holds an 80 per cent share in the milk and milk products’ market in UP while the local brands led by Parag (UP Pradeshik Cooperative Dairy Federation) are content with the remaining 20 per share.
Parag, in true government tradition, has not bothered to fill in the gap and cash in on the Amul decision to push up its sales.
Mr Harsharan Das, director, Pradeshik Dairy Cooperative Federation (PCDF), candidly admits, “The market is full of opportunities for Parag because our products are of good quality and are popular. There have been some issues in the past but now we are trying to resolve everything and hope to meet the situation very soon.”
Though the officer did not say so, the fact remains that the state of affairs in PCDF is pathetic with delay in salaries and promotions leading to employees’ unrest. The PCDF has been plagued by prolonged strikes by the employees and seven units in western UP have closed down.
The average daily procurement of 6 lakh litres of milk by PCDF has also slipped to an average of 5.5 lakh litres in the last two months and went down further to 5.35 lakh litres this week.