Even as a new monthly cycle for Aavin’s consumer cards begins on Sunday, several suppliers have lost customers as they could not renew the cards for full cream milk (FCM).
Aavin recently introduced new rules for monthly cardholders purchasing FCM (orange packets). Consumers were asked to visit their respective zonal offices and submit documents such as family card or rental agreements to renew cards. The dairy major restricted the quantity of full cream milk to one litre per family card for cardholders.
A supplier in Thoraipakkam said the officials refused to even change the milk variant for 121 cardholders since they could not go to the depot. “This only shows that Aavin does not want to sell milk through cards since it is a loss for it,” he said.
A supplier in Kodungaiyur said that consumers refused to stand in queue to renew the card. “I lost 22 cards. Many are office-goers and refused to wait in the queue. They are giving only one FCM cover per ration card. At least 300 consumers in our booth could not renew the cards,” he said.
A consumer from Nungambakkam, Srinivasan, said his supplier told him that supply of fat-free milk would be stopped.
Jagannathan of Alwarpet said that his booth man had been sending him cow’s milk in place of green magic milk saying it was in short supply. “The fat content in these variants are different,” he said.
AITUC Ambattur’s Palayan said the government was not being open about card supplies to consumers. “In this whole exercise, Aavin’s aim seems to be to cut down the number of milk cards since it has to spend on subsidy. This milk will be supplied to agencies, which will bring them more profit,” he alleged.
Official sources in Aavin said their aim was to ramp up the supply of popular milk variants. “We want to ensure that milk is available at all times to our consumers,” the official said.
Published - July 15, 2023 10:10 pm IST
