Demand of milk and yogurt in tetra pack registered significant increase in the city in the wake of non-availability of the commodity. Milk prices are on the rise. Dairy vendors hinted they might go on strike against the increase. On Wednesday, they did not collect milk from the wholesale market.
Milk shortage hit the city as retailers have decided not to buy milk from the wholesale market at Rs 90 and sale it at government fixed rate of Rs 85 per litter. A large number of milk retailer shops in the city remained closed on Wednesday. Caught between the power games of the milk mafia, citizens continue to suffer because of shortage of milk supply. The retailers said that they have stopped purchasing milk from the wholesalers as they can not sustained losses.
A few shops are selling the milk at an increased price of Rs 100 per litter instead of Rs 85 fixed price by the government. The retailers said that how do they sell milk at lower price when they buy it for high price. The wholesalers demanding Rs 90 per litter and the government has fixed Rs 85 per litter rate, they maintained.
A milk crisis has emerged in the country's biggest city as the majority of retailers have closed their shops. "Wholesalers are selling [milk] at a price nine rupees above what the government has set," a retailer told a TV news channel. "We have stopped purchasing [from the wholesalers] since Tuesday." According to an estimate, the metropolis' daily milk demand is 4.5 million litres.
The commodity's 'resourceful' supply chain is rumoured to have rendered helpless the commissioner's office - the decisive authority on commodity prices. "I have visited eight to ten shops since Wednesday morning but milk is not available anywhere," a citizen complained. Another citizen told that wholesalers, in some areas of the city, have increased prices up to Rs 100 per litre. "Authorities are clueless [about the increasing prices], but we are worried about our families," said the citizen.
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