More than a month after the Haryana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation Limited proposed shifting the Vita Milk Plant in Ambala City’s Kalka Chowk, office-bearers of the Ambala Milk Union have now raised objection, citing non-suitability of the proposed location.
According to the union’s chairman and directors, if the existing 10-acre plant at Baldev Nagar camp is shifted to the proposed site on Hisar Road, almost 10 kilometers away, it will be an injustice to the milk producers of the region.
Paramjit Singh Badola, a director of the milk union, said, “In our representation to the chairman of the federation, we highlighted that the plant here is at a favourable location as it caters to the milk producers of Ambala, Yamunanagar and Panchkula. If the plant is shifted to Hisar Road, it will get difficult for sellers.”
The signatories of the representation added that even if the plant has to be shifted, at least four sites should be shortlisted and discussed by a committee.
The federation, however, contended that the plant can’t be expanded as it is in the vicinity of a residential area, due to which it loses out on business from nearly 600 potential villages.
A Sreenivas, managing director of the federation, said, “The plant is very old and requires shifting. The proposal is at an early stage and we are identifying land.”
On being asked about objection from the union, he said that shifting the plant is solely the federation’s decision in which the union has no say.
800 villages associated to plant
The Ambala milk plant was established in the early 1970s and has a capacity of 1.5 LLPD (lakh litres of milk per day).
The Ambala Milk Union has taken the plant on lease from the federation and procured an average of 70,000 litres per day in 2019-20 from three districts (Ambala, Yamunanagar and Panchkula).
There are more than 800 registered village-level societies that collect milk from producers and sell it to the union, that processes the milk into various products at the plant. There are a total of six plants in the state.
