Are politicians milking Aarey dry to sell Rs 4,000 crore land?

Is the state government out to devour its own milksupplying unit and invite land sharks to the feastThe cityrsquos only governmentrun milk supplier Aarey dairy is fighting a battle to stay afloat atop its rapidly vanishing production but appears to be hurtling to its eventual decimation with a lot of help or lack thereof from the governmentAareyrsquos Kurla dairy is spread over 25 acres of land and infrastructural developments around it have bumped up the plotrsquos market value PicsAtul KambleThe dairy which once supplied over 11 lakh litres of milk daily now provides a paltry 20000 litres the first such low in its 45year history From the various facts and utterances of dairy employees one can discern a picture in which the powers that be seem to be systematically enfeebling the unit to help themselves to a chunk of it mdash or rather the gold mine of its sprawling land at Worli Kurla and GoregaonThe Worli dairy is spread across 14 acres of prime seafacing land with a market value of over Rs 3000 croreTo wit the Kurla dairy has been shut since February purportedly for overhaul of machinery Hiring has been on hold for the last few decades and there are no signs of it resuming From the dairyrsquos existing staff of 1800 over 1100 employees have been shown as surplusThe Goregaon dairy land which falls under a green zone is home to a rich biodiversity of flora and faunaMoreover in the last three decades modernisation has failed to touch dairy operations its advertising funding has been stemmed no measures have been taken to step up milk production or even make it viable in the competitive market of todayThe cream separators at Kurla dairy have been defunct for yearsTo all intents the dairy might as well be living in a time capsule And the governmentrsquos unconcern visagravevis the situation has given credence to the fears of a conspiracy to let Aarey die a natural deathSharks on prowl For one closure might mean megabucks for real estate developers ogling the sprawling Aarey plots at Kurla Goregaon and most importantly Worli Sea FaceOfficials at the three dairy units claim that the Worli dairy mdash spread across 14 acres of prime seafacing land with a market value of over R3000 crore mdash is a particularly fat cash cow for builders The Bandra Worli Sea Link has only enhanced the value of this propertyThe units at Kurla and Goregaon are each spread over 25 acres of land and while the formerrsquos land can easily fetch R1000 crore in the market the latter being in a Green Zone cannot be used for commercial purposes Nonetheless the state cabinetrsquos nod last week for conversion of agricultural land to nonagricultural land for urban development without requiring the collectorrsquos permission would result in loss of this green belt until now protected by environmental regulationsPower plots Vijay Sonawane president of the Greater Mumbai Milk Scheme Workers Union which is affiliated to the State Government Employees Federation blamed politicians for the status quoldquoThe people in power are trying to create a platform to attain their ulterior motives By refusing to pump in funds into the dairy they want to show that it s losses are piling up The nonsupply of milk would result in its closure which would mean money running into several crores for developersrdquo Sanjay Chaturvedi editor of real estate publication Accommodation Times said ldquoThe government is exhibiting a political will to ensure the dairy dies a natural death so the entire prime land is thrown open for the land sharks to grabWhile the Worli dairy can easily fetch over Rs 3000 crore the Kurla land can get over Rs 1000 crore due to the newly constructed SantacruzChembur Link Road which passes through it Its proximity to the Kurla railway terminus and the State Transport bus depot in Nehru Nagar only bumps up its valuerdquoChaturvedi added ldquoThe recent cabinet approval for conversion of agricultural land to nonagricultural land is a ploy to take over the Green Zone status of Aarey Goregaon for exploitationrdquoPortending that the dairy might end up under the dust of history just like the cityrsquos onceflourishing textile mills he cautioned ldquoIt is high time that Mumbaikars stand up to save Aarey dairy from land sharks or it will meet the fate of Mumbairsquos defunct millsrsquo land sooner or laterrdquoIts the competitionPoliticians and Mantralaya officials wrote off concerns over any such conspiracy ascribing the situation to a considerate government that wants to shield consumers from high milk prices Y E Kerure dairy development commissioner told midday that the supply of cow milk to the dairy has dried up since cooperatives are demanding higher prices for milkldquoWe are still paying a procurement rate of Rs 20 per litre to the farmers against the Rs 24Rs 25l at which private players buy from them It is obvious that farmers will supply to the entity that pays them more The selling price of Aarey milk is Rs 33l whereas private suppliers charge over Rs 40rdquo Kerure said He further said ldquoThe moment the government increases procurement rate and tries to match it with that of private players they in turn will raise their purchase rate and this will only result in price hikesrdquoIts the netasBut officials at Aarey dairy tell a different story Requesting anonymity some revealed that the problem would not have been caused had the highpower committee constituted during a cabinet meeting on July 2009 taken solid decisions on fluctuating milk pricesThe committee which included senior officials from dairy and finance departments failed to resolve the issue and stabilise milk pricesMoreover the dairy officials rued politicians from the ruling CongressNCP alliance run most of the private dairiesAccording to union leader Sonawane ldquoDuring monsoon due to abundant grass for the cows to graze on the milk yield should ideally expand However most cooperative societies are not supplying milk to the governmentrun dairy as they prefer private dairiesrdquoShashank Sutar who heads the workers union at Kurla dairy said ldquoIf the procurement cost paid to farmers is raised and matched with the rate private players are paying the supply to Aarey will improve drastically And the consumers who are already paying over Rs 40 to buy private brands will not mind paying a similar price for AareyrdquoFull throttleAccording to dairy officials politicians have let the dairy fall to decrepitude since this serves their personal interests For the past 15 years the government has not shelled out a paisa to fund advertising a head which used to get Rs 80Rs 90 lakh annuallyRecruitment has been in a freeze for decades Earlier the dairy employed over 13000 people across the state But the government proclaimed that the labour was surplus and whittled it piecemeal to a force of 4000 at present Of these over 80 per cent are set to retire over the next few years this is interpreted by the unions as an oblique declaration of an impending closure since no fresh recruitment is being made to replace the outgoing membersldquoThe surplus employees are in the 4555 age group and more than 80 per cent are due for retirement in the next 510 years We had mooted that the surplus staff should be absorbed by the dairy as replacements for those about to retire but the government did not act on our requestrdquo said SonawaneIn Mumbai the exodus is almost urgent Of the present force of 1800 dairy staffers here nearly 500 will retire near the turn of this yearWith production slipping the dairy carried out an internal assessment and found that over 1100 of its employees were still in excess The officials sought to clarify that those relieved from duty would be adjusted in other government departments But it turned out to be more of a maladjustment Praful Bhadalekar general secretary of the Worli dairy union said ldquoEight of our security guards were shunted and assigned jobs as housekeeping staff bellboys attendants and waiters in state guesthouses All eight came back to the dairy a few months ago because they felt humiliatedrdquoIn another outlandish transfer a bunch of mechanics from the dairy were assigned to the state Forensic Science Laboratory in Kalina ldquoThey are used to spanners and hammers but suddenly they are expected to handle glass test tubes and jars in a sophisticated lab They are not used to working in such an environment and some have already returned to the dairyrdquo said BhadalekarMoreover the government intends to parcel off the dairy employees to places like Ratnagiri Raigad Sindhudurg etc It has failed to factor in that the house rent allowance of a government servant in Mumbai an Aplus grade city is 30 of the basic salary while in rural areas it is a mere 5Screws loose Officials were distraught that in an age of innovation the dairy plants and machinery have not been upgraded for years leading to its production capacity remaining grossly underused In fact the machinery bought from Denmark nearly 45 years ago has not seen an upgrade since the dairyrsquos inception Most of the equipment at the three units has not even undergone servicing Officials said that the three cream separators at the Kurla dairy each of which is currently valued at over Rs 2 crore have not been functional for years Dairy union leader Sutar said ldquoIn February the only separator that was operational developed problems and the production shut down Though a tender for repairs was floated in June only one company came forward to fix the problem for R6 lakh But the work has not been allotted as the firm has not submitted a valueadded tax certification to the dairy department A glycolchilling machine worth Rs 60 lakh bought in 2010 is yet to be installed at the Goregaon dairy Similarly a sleeving machine procured for Rs 10 lakh a year and half ago has been rusting away after a major component was stolenThere are rumours that the state may bring in a third party like the National Dairy Development Board and appoint consultants to review the capacity of all the three dairies With a view to ldquomoderniserdquo operations they may close down one of the dairies and sell off the prime land for commerce