The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) in association with the State Government and the OMFED would donate about 6.5 lakh 200-ml tetra-packs of flavoured milk through 2,600 Anganwadi Centres in 12 blocks of Puri district from May 23.
NDDB PR and Communication Group Head Abhijit Bhattacharjee told reporters here on Wednesday that the NDDB would also provide 300 tonnes of fodder for the Chilika buffalo breed farm.
He informed that the NDDB employees have donated Rs eight lakh to the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund (CMRF).
He said the NDDB officials are working in close coordination with the OMFED, Puri Milk Union, Women and Child Development Department and Puri Collector to provide relief to the cyclone-affected people.
Bhattacharjee said that keeping in view increase in demand for value-added dairy products, the NDDB’s wholly owned subsidiary IDMC Ltd recently commissioned two ice-cream plants each of 3,000-litre capacity per day at Sambalpur Dairy and Bhawanipatna Dairy.
He said the NDDB is executing a state-of-the-art five-lakh litre-capacity per day automated milk processing dairy plant with an investment of Rs 242 crore at Arilo Govindpur in Cuttack for processing of liquid milk and packing, UHT and milk powder plant.
The plant which also would be processing butter making and packing, fermented products like butter milk, lassi, flavoured milk preparation and packing, ghee making and packing, paneer making and packing would be ready by the end of 2020.
He said that for the first time in east India five Milk ATMs would be setup in Ganjam and Gajapati with the support of NDDB and Tata Trust for which the board has sanctioned a loan amounting to Rs 40.85 lakh.
The NDDB has also approved a grant of Rs eight lakh to the OMFED for milk fortification in order to address the issue of micronutrient deficiencies. The OMFED has fortified around 511 lakh litres of milk till January 2019 and has targeted to fortify 800 lakh litres. The “Safal” has 19 outlets in Bhubaneswar and six in Sambalpur city and has targeted to open as many as 50 in both cities, he added.
