Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy is scheduled to lay the foundation stone for an Amul Dairy unit here on July 4 (Tuesday).
The Gujarat-based cooperative dairy, which took over the defunct Chittoor-based Vijaya Dairy through a 99-year lease, will be investing ₹385 crore, which includes setting up an ice cream plant with ₹150 crore, in the first phase.
District Collector Sagili Shan Mohan, who on Sunday inspected the arrangements for the Chief Minister’s visit to Chittoor, said that the operations of Amul Dairy as part of the Jagananna’s Pala Velluva scheme would generate 5,000 jobs, apart from empowering several lakhs of dairy farmers in the combined Chittoor district.
Revival after four decades
The cooperative dairy’s history in Chittoor district dates back to 1945, when it was established as a milk collection centre. In 1969, it became a cooperative factory, with procurement of 6,000 litres. In 1988, the unit in the name of Vijaya Dairy expanded its business to 2.5 lakh litres. However, it started witnessing huge losses from mid-1990s with the entry of private dairies.
Eventually, Vijaya Dairy was closed and kept under liquidation with ₹48 crore debts. In 2002, its operations came to an end.
After two decades, the cooperative dairy sector in Chittoor is set to be revived.
Amid protests of the opposition Telugu Desam Party leaders in Chittoor against handing over the dairy to Amul, some farmers maintain that the entry of Amul has brought them good prices. “Compared to five years ago, the price of both cow and buffalo milk saw an increase of ₹10 per litre,” Animal husbandry officials said.
CMC HOSPITAL
Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy will also lay the stone for the construction of a 300-bedded hospital of Christian Medical College at Cheelapalle village, on the outskirts of Chittoor. It was in 2006 during the Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy government that the Vellore-based college was allocated 640 acres of land to for a medical college and hospital.
