Dairy union to approach court

rajahmundry: the joint action committee of the godavari cooperative milk producers trade unions is all set to approach court over implementation of revival package for the sick unit. sources in the union said irregularities and mismanagement plagued the dairy since 1996-97. however, following representation by the trade unions, chief minister n chandrababu naidu had agreed in principal for sanctioning rs 3 crore under voluntary retirement scheme (vrs) for the employees.the same was communicated by the deputy secretary in the chief minister’s office, vide letter no 12560/cmp/1998 dated 10.9.1998, asking the principal secretary, animal husbandry department, to circulate the file for orders. however, following the order, the unions, in a letter to the managing director of the andhra pradesh dairy development co-operative federation, alleged though the operational expenses of the dairy were reduced to a greater extent following the implementation of vrs, the benefits under the scheme were not being disbursed among the applicants. the unions said that for profitable running of the diary, they had even accepted the administration’s proposal of utilising rs 2.25 crore out of the rs 3 crore package to clear the dues of the farmers, though the dairy had to pay them salary dues worth rs 2 crore. in addition, the staff had also accepted a cut of 30 percent on their salaries, they added. however, even retirement and death benefits were not properly paid, the unions alleged. furthermore, though new scales were implemented in 1998 in the entire state, the same were not implemented in case of godavari dairy, they said. the unions observed that the implementation of rehabilitation package in 1997 made the unit to run on a viable basis till march 2000. however, the second revival package envisioned on 1-4-2000 was with a hidden agenda of serving the interests of the visakha and krishna unions at the cost of godavari unit, the unions alleged. they said rajahmundry diary under the godavari unit was accumulating losses due to increasing overhead expenditure. they said that while its operational area was reduced by two mandals, there was no corresponding cut in the staff strength leaving it with 170 employees, which is two-thirds of the total staff under various diaries under the godavari unit. they said that the godavari union was divided by handing over kakinada, tuni, bhimavaram, bhimadolu, eluru, kannapuram units to visakha and krishna unions.