Gandhinagar, May 17 (IANS) Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Sunday inaugurated Madhur Dairy’s newly built fully-automated milk processing and packaging plant at Dashela village in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district, saying “the facility would strengthen the cooperative dairy sector and benefit livestock rearers across the district”.

The plant has been constructed on 15 acres at an estimated cost of Rs 128 crore and has an initial milk processing capacity of 2.5 lakh litres per day, which can later be expanded to five lakh litres per day.

Addressing livestock rearers and dairy farmers at the event, Union Minister Shah apologised for arriving late due to the heat and thanked people for remaining present at the venue.

“Today a new beginning is going to start in Dashela for the milk producer brothers and sisters of Gandhinagar district,” the Union Home Minister said.

He said the project represented the continuation of Gujarat’s cooperative legacy built by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Tribhuvandas Patel and Verghese Kurien.

“Madhur Dairy had evolved from a small cooperative initiative into a major dairy institution. The journey that began in 1971 with only four societies and 6,000 litres of milk has today reached annual turnover worth hundreds of crores and more than three lakh litres of milk collection, processing and distribution,” Union Minister Shah added.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, who attended the programme as the chief guest, said Gujarat had remained rooted in the spirit of cooperation for centuries.

He said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi had strengthened the cooperative movement through the vision of “Sahkar Se Samruddhi”.

“Madhur Dairy’s growth reflected the success of cooperative institutions in Gujarat. The union had begun with only three to four milk producer cooperative societies around five-and-a-half decades ago,” Chief Minister Patel added.

He said that Gandhinagar residents now associated their mornings with tea made from Madhur milk and noted that “a consumer cooperative society with around 15,000 members had been functioning in the district for the past 50 years through 230 distribution centres”.

During the programme, women livestock rearers welcomed Union Minister Amit Shah at the venue.

Among those present were Gujarat Legislative Assembly Speaker Shankar Chaudhary, Deputy Chief Minister Harsh Sanghavi, State Cooperation Minister Jitu Vaghani, State Bharatiya Janata Party President Jagdish Vishwakarma, Madhur Dairy Chairman Shankarsinh Rana, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Chairman Ashok Chaudhary, National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited Chairman Jetha Ahir and several legislators, cooperative leaders, dairy board members, livestock rearers, and farmers.

–IANS

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