Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu on Friday said the Himachal Pradesh Milk Federation adopting modern technology will digitalize milk procurement by March 31 next year.

“This will bring transparency in the purchase of milk and farmers will be provided information about the quality and price of their milk through SMS. Under this system, real time data of milk purchase will be available and farmers can receive money directly in their bank accounts,” he said.

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He said this while inaugurating the new milk processing plant of Milkfed with a capacity of 50 thousand liters per day, built at a cost of Rs 25.67 crore in Duttnagar of Rampur Assembly constituency.

A plant of 20,000 liters capacity is already installed here, increasing the total capacity of this unit to 70 thousand liters per day. Flavored milk, khoya, ghee, butter, paneer, lassi and curd will be produced in this plant.

The Chief Minister said that the milk producers of four districts Shimla, Kullu, Mandi and Kinnaur will benefit from the increase in the capacity of the plant.

He said that this will benefit about 20 thousand farmers associated with 271 milk cooperative societies of the area.

He further said that the first point of the budget of the state government was to strengthen the rural economy so that the income of the farmer families improves and they could live a good life.

He said that the ‘Vyavashta Parivartan’ of the present state government envisages that the people can live a better life in their villages. Improvements are being made in all the government departments so that people can get better facilities.

“I have never worked for political gain. I come from an ordinary family and my mother also does farming in the village. No farmer came to me with the demand to increase the price of milk, but I increased the rate of milk by Rs. 13-15 to strengthen the economy of the people of the village,” said he.

He said that the state government is going to recruit 900 veterinary pharmacists in the Animal Husbandry Department, so that animal breeders could get better facilities at their doorsteps.

Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Chander Kumar urged the Milk Federation to focus on value addition, so that farmers could get better economic benefits, he said that efforts are being made to promote the milk of hill cow as a separate brand.

He said that for quality milk, farmers should take care of the health of their livestock as facilities are being increased for animal breeders.

Chander Kumar said that the scheme of purchasing cow dung from farmers is being implemented on the ground and it will be launched soon.

Public Works Minister Vikramaditya Singh thanked the Chief Minister for inaugurating the milk processing plant at Duttanagar, which will improve the economic condition of the farmers of the area as well as women in particular.

He said that even while in opposition, Sukhu used to worry about the economic prosperity of the farmers and today after coming to power, he is running many schemes to ensure their welfare.

“In the coming times, the state government will rope in more such schemes, which would revolutionize the economy of Himachal Pradesh,” he said.