Chikkaballapur, 24 June

Farmers' protests erupted in Chikkaballapur’s Ajjavara village after a milk adulteration scam was uncovered at Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) dairy on Monday. Muniraju, the secretary, and Munikrishna, the clerk, allegedly diluted milk supplied by farmers and embezzled funds over four months. By increasing the quantity of milk through dilution, they collected an additional Rs 4.7 lakh, which was subsequently siphoned off into benami accounts and those of their relatives.

A farmer named Harisha noticed irregularities in milk collection and payments and alerted the Ajjavara Village Milk Producers' Cooperative Association, which, upon investigation, confirmed the scam and terminated the services of the duo.

Infuriated by the deceit, farmers protested in front of the Ajjavara KMF milk cooperative society dairy with their milk cans. They demanded that the embezzled funds be returned and called for action against the corrupt officials.

The association President, Keshav, assured them that efforts are underway to recover the money. Meanwhile, the cooperative society has filed a police complaint against the two officials. -Salar News