Sena activists drain milk tankers in protest against powder import

Mumbai: At a time when acute poverty grips a quarter of the nation's population, millions of litres of milk were wasted when Shiv Sena activists drained milk tankers as part of a protest.

The draining was a deliberate exercise by Sainiks of the Satara unit, who stopped a milk tanker on the Satara-Pune Road to demonstrate their opposition to the government's importing of milk powder from New Zealand.

A week ago, Sena activists had similarly protested by draining 50,000 litres of milk onto the streets of Satara city.

Local leaders said they were shocked that the Maharashtra government planned to import milk powder as it would severely affect regional dairy and livestock owners.

Locals feared the protests would intensify in coming days and said the shameful waste of milk on the roads was an insensitive and ugly act. Supriya Sule, MP from Baramati in western Maharashtra, which has a substantial milk industry, said she "felt let down" by the protest.

"It was an extremely painful and traumatic sight. Everyone has a democratic right to protest but there are so many ways of doing it. This is no way to protest," Sule said.

Sena spokesperson Dr Neelam Gorhe and other local Sena leaders said they were not aware of the incident.

The National Dairy Development Board is likely to import 30,000 tonnes of milk powder and 15,000 tonnes of ghee to address the shortage of milk and rising prices, even though India is one of the world's largest milk-producing countries.

Sena activists have threatened to burn the ship bringing the milk powders to Mumbai on August 18.