Thursday, July 9, 2020

Punjab Government Wants SGPC to Reconsider Desi Ghee Tender to Pune Firm in The Interest of State’s 3.5 Lakh Milk Producers, 99 per Cent of Whom are Sikhs.



The SGPC had recently allotted tender for desi ghee to be used at over 85 gurdwaras in Punjab and Haryana to this company as it had quoted the lowest price.

After allotment of Rs 60-crore tender for desi ghee to a Pune-based company, Sanoi Dairy, by the SGPC for preparing karah parshad and langar at various gurdwaras across the Punjab and Haryana, the state government has urged the Sikh body to reconsider its decision in the interest of state’s 3.5 lakh milk producers, 99 per cent of whom are Sikhs.

In a letter to SGPC chief Gobind Singh Longowal, Punjab Cooperation Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa has said that the state’s farmers donate tons of food grains to SGPC for distribution as langar and the religious body’s allotment of tender to a company outside Punjab would create livelihood problems for these farmers.

Quoting former SGPC chief Gurcharan Singh Tohra, Randhawa wrote that “he (Tohra) would often say that SGPC is not a business establishment. He used to say that every decision of SGPC should be made after taking into consideration the welfare of the Sikh Community. He used to believe that he would not rent out a SGPC shop outside Golden Temple to an atheist for 10 times the normal rent and would rather give it to a poor Sikh selling ‘kakkars’ (symbols of Sikhism).”

In the letter, Randhawa has also raised questions over quality of the Desi Ghee that the company would be supplying to SGPC at a much cheaper price than quoted by Milked.

He writes, “Milked helps the farmers by procuring milk from them at certain price so that they do not suffer losses. At the same time it provides its consumers premium products by not comprising on quality. This does not leave room for the Milked to quote a price which is lesser than quoted earlier. If we reduce the price, the farmers will have to bear the brunt.”

 Meanwhile, Sonai Dairy, the Pune-based private cooperative firm connected with 75,000 farmers from Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka, has said that it will supply best quality product to the SGPC.

Dr,Gurdeep Kaur,Associate Professor,University of Delhi

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