Surendra Kafle

Nepalgunj, March 28:

Banke-Bardiya Public Government of Tharuwan Autonomous Zone, a sister organisation of CPN, Maoists, have banned the dairy farmers from selling milk in Nepalgunj district headquarters.

"Maoists stopped me at Khajura Bazaar area and prohibited from taking the milk to the district headquarters to sell, " a dairy farmer said adding that if the situation continues, the headquarters would see a milk shortage shortly. He added that he took the permission to sell the milk only on Saturday and the Maoists threatened him that if he disobeyed him, he would be severely punished.

"I have been running my household from the income of milk-selling. Now how can I feed my family," he questioned.The dairy farmers in rural areas of Nepalgunj provide milk to households in district headquarters every morning regularly.

Manju Dhakal, a housewife, said that she bought powder milk when she heard that the farmers would not bring in any milk from today. Most of the housewives are now buying Horlicks, Boost and powder milk for their children.

Milk collection in Janata Milk Producers Cooperative (JMPC) has dropped from 550 litres to 300 litres daily.Sekhar Dahal, a milk seller said that the sellers from the rural areas were selling milk but due to the recent ban, the milk sellers from Danfe of Bardiya and Kalika area stopped coming to the headquarters from March 23.

Prabhat Dairy, Jay Bageshwori Dairy, Puja Dairy, Krishna Dairy, Jana Kalyan Dairy and Gurudev Dairy are currently operating in Nepalgunj. Milk collection in these dairies has also dropped to half. The security personals in the area informed that they were unknown about the ban imposed on dairy farmers by the Maoists.