Andhra Pradesh CPM Protests Vijay Dairy Price Hike
CPI(M) state secretariat member Ch. Babu Rao and West City committee secretary and former corporator Boi Satyababu led the protest: Reports
VIJAYAWADA: The CPI(M) on Saturday staged a dharna at the Vijay Dairy milk factory here, protesting the Krishna District Milk Union’s decision to increase milk prices by ₹2 a litre from September 14, coinciding with Vinayaka Chavithi.
CPI(M) state secretariat member Ch. Babu Rao and West City committee secretary and former corporator Boi Satyababu led the protest. Party workers raised slogans and briefly stopped milk vehicles amid rain.
Babu Rao and Satyababu said the hike would further burden poor and middle-class families already facing rising prices of essential commodities. They said Vijay Dairy had increased prices again within five months, imposing an immediate burden of about ₹36 crore and an annual burden of over ₹100 crore if hikes continued three times a year.
They alleged that the government’s move would encourage private dairies, including Heritage, to raise prices and claimed it was weakening the Krishna District Milk Union.
Recalling that an earlier proposed hike was withdrawn after CPI(M) protests, they demanded an immediate rollback and held Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and coalition representatives responsible.
They warned that continued price rises would become an election issue in municipal and local body polls and said protests would be intensified if the hike was not withdrawn.