The city dwellers, who are facing overall inflation, will have to pay a higher price for milk, curd and cheese in the coming days. The Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department will convene a meeting this week to fix the new prices of milk, curd, and cheese. A new rate list will be issued after discussion with all the concerned organizations and departments. In this meeting, new prices of food items available at dhabas will also be decided. This meeting of the Price Fixation Committee was earlier scheduled to be held on Wednesday but was postponed at the last minute and is now expected to be held on Friday or Saturday.

The last meeting of the Price Fixation Committee was held in 2019. Unfortunately, no meeting could be held after that due to the Corona epidemic, and even today, milk, curd, and cheese are being sold at the prices fixed three years ago. In such a situation, the pressure of increasing the prices of the organizations concerned is continuously growing. In this regard, various organizations had urged the Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution Department to convene a committee meeting. According to the rules, this meeting should be held every six months, but now since the meeting will be held after three years, there is a possibility of a significant increase in the price.

“The last meeting of the Price Fixation Committee was held in June 2019, and the new rate list was released on July 10. Everything became expensive in these three years. Our transportation has increased, and the cost has increased. Today we have milk, curd and paneer. The business has become a loss business. We want to give pure goods to the public, but the government will also have to increase the price”, Anil Sharma, Head Milk Sellers Association.

“We request the government so much that we should meet our cost. Today our milk cost is above Rs 70 per litre, but we are forced to sell milk at Rs 50 per litre. So our people should be away from this business because the losses are high. If this situation continues, in the coming days, our children will have only powdered milk”, Jameel Choudhary, Head Dodhi Gujjar.

Currently, the price of milk products-

  • Cow’s milk with 3.5 per cent fat and 8.5 per cent SNF is Rs 37 per litre.
  • Buffalo milk with 5 per cent fat and 8.5 per cent SNF Rs 48 per litre
  • Cow-Buffalo mixed milk with 4.5 per cent fat and 8.5 per cent SNF Rs 43 per litre
  • In Jammu city, the curd is sold for Rs 50 and paneer at Rs 250 per kg.

Amish Mahajan