SILCHAR, July 18 - Over 1000 milk suppliers of Cachar are now a worried lot. They anticipate they will lose their jobs as they have been asked by the Dairy department not to supply milk after July 30. This will mean that the consumers of milk who are seen in long queues waiting for the milk-carrying vans every morning will be deprived of getting pure milk.
Raju Ahmed Barbhuiya, secretary of the Dairy Milk Suppliers� Association, Cachar said, �With the sudden directive of the department concerned to stop supplying milk from July 30, the milk suppliers of 35 societies across the district are confronted with an imminent crisis. Based on our supply of milk to the department, we have taken loans from banks to prosper in the business. But now if the supply is stopped we shall have to starve. We shall not be able to repay the loans.�
He was quick to claim that despite a profit of more than Rs 20 lakh, what led the department to come out with such a harsh decision. He added to say that if the department does not allow them to supply milk, it should also bear their liabilities.
Kushma Begam echoed Raju Ahmed Barbhuiya�s statement and said that the milk suppliers are already burdened under heavy bank loans. �We want that the suppliers must be allowed to continue supplying milk to the department,� Begam maintained. It may be mentioned that the supply of milk to the customers has been stopped since July 7 due to a mechanical snag in the milk processing unit.
