Hike to help farmers, says CM; Ashok accuses govt. of placing burden on people

While Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar defended milk price hike by ₹8 on Thursday, saying that the decision was taken to support dairy farmers, Leader of Opposition R. Ashok accused the State government of placing an additional financial burden on the people.

He also warned the Congress government of a protest. After the Cabinet meeting that approved the hike, the Chief Minister said, “The hike has been made to prevent losses to farmers.” He pointed out that input costs, price of packaging of milk, transportation have all increased in the past one year.

“There was a demand to increase the price by ₹12 to ₹15. We made this decision after consulting with everyone,” he said. He also highlighted that all MLAs had demanded a milk price hike across party lines in both the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council, cutting across partylines.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ashok questioned whether increasing the cost of essential commodities and imposing additional taxes was the Congress government’s “guarantee to the people of Karnataka”. He said that while people were already struggling with rising prices, the government appeared focused on further burdening their pockets.