A petition has been filed at the Madras High Court to scrap the price hike in Aavin milk, which was announced a few weeks ago by the government. The petition by V Munikrishnan states that the increase in milk price has made it difficult for working class people. According to the Times of India, this plea is likely to be taken up for hearing on Tuesday by a division bench headed by Justice M Sathyanarayanan.
The petitioner argued that since Aavin was the milk brand consumed by the working class people in the state, it was unfair to increase its price. Seeking interim relief, he asked for the price hike to be stayed until the disposal of the petition.
The Tamil Nadu government increased the selling price of Aavin milk by Rs 6 per litre, applicable from August 19. As per the latest revision, the price of Aavin Nice (blue sachet; toned milk) has been increased from Rs 37 to Rs 43 per litre, Aavin Diet (magenta sachet; double toned) from Rs 34 to Rs 40, Aavin Green Magic (green sachet; standardised milk) from Rs 41 to Rs 47 and Aavin Premium (orange sachet; full cream milk) from Rs 45 to Rs 51 per litre.
This increase resulted in local tea shop owners raising tea and coffee prices at least by Rs 2. This sudden price hike in milk rates has been received poorly by the people in the state.
Meanwhile, at least seven private milk companies – Dodla, Srinivasa, Thirumala, Heritage, Jersey, Gowardhan and Vyshnavi – increased their milk price by Rs 4 per litre on Saturday. This year alone the price hike by private milk brands was between Rs 8 and Rs 10 per litre.
According to The New Indian Express, these private brands cater to over 65% of the milk demand of tea shops and hotels in Chennai, selling 10 to 11 lakh litres of the 27 lakh litres of milk the city consumes daily. The newspaper quotes official sources in private milk companies as saying that the hike in their price relates to the increase in Aavin’s milk procurement prices announced last week.