Twenty-seven years after the establishment of Amritsar’s first planned dairy complex in Fatahpur village, located on city outskirts, the project remains a saga of unkept promises. Named ‘Dairy Complex 65 Qila’, these dairies supply roughly around 1.50 lakh litres of milk daily to the city dwellers. They demand immediate resolution of their long-pending grievances.The Municipal Corporation had evicted dairy farmers from the walled city and areas around it in 1998 to Fatahpur and set up a dairy complex on 65 acres of land, earning the name “65 Qila” in Punjabi, which became popular among residents for providing fresh and pure milk.A plot holder, Mulkh Raj, said his family paid the entire amount within the fixed time-frame of stipulated installments, yet they were not issued registry of plots.Balwinder Singh, a dairy farmer, said he was among the 118 dairy operators who were shifted from the walled city to the dairy complex in 1998. At that time, each of them was allotted a plot of 600 square yards at a cost of Rs 2.44 lakh. A large number of them was unable to pay the cost of plots as shifting had cost them dearly while the government did not pay any compensation. He said that the sheds in the city became useless and many of them had to sell off their land at low prices to foot the expenses incurred on shifting and also to meet the construction cost in raising new dairies.Consequently, several families, unable to meet the sudden entire cost of shifting, had to abandon the business of dairy farming and were forced to adopt other professions. He said the government had brought them here under force and left them under the open sky.Baljinder Singh, a leader of dairy farmers, associated with BKU Ekta Sidhupur, demanded that the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government in state should immediately direct the Local Government Department to recover the cost of plots from dairy farmers as per the original price and waive the entire interest.The dairy farmers regretted that the government did not provide them with proper channels to link drain outlets of their dairies with the nearby Gunda Nullah. Similarly, there are no street lights, some installed on trees years ago, got damaged due to storms. Promises of providing amenities in the planned dairy complex years ago are yet to be implemented.They rued that the construction of a veterinary hospital started only a year ago, nearly 26 years after the establishment of the dairy complex. Similarly, the promise of setting up sheds and developing the entire complex has not been done. Around four acres of land were allotted to a private company to set up a bio-gas plant last year. Over 100 dairy farmers here have nearly 25,000 cattle, mostly of the Mohra, Nili-Ravi, Holstein-Friesian (HF), cross-breed and Jersey varieties.Amrik Singh, another leader of the dairy farmers, said the government should expose the supply chain network of spurious milk which is economically hurting the interests of real dairy farmers. These unscrupulous dairy farmers are providing milk at a low rate which is not practically possible. Given the high daily fodder cost of livestock, at about Rs 350 kg and other expenses, they are not able to get the proper rate for their milk, he complained.
