Plan to revamp cream unit in Umrangsu

SARAT SARMA

Haflong, Oct. 31: The Dima Hasao District Autonomous Council plans to renovate its cream production centre at Umrangsu, which was closed since 2005, this financial year. Along with cream and custard the unit would also launch the production of pasteurised milk with support from four local milk societies. “Last year we received Rs 34 lakh from Dima Hasao district autonomous council to buy machinery. Now we want a new plant for which we have approached the local autonomous council. It will cost Rs 30 lakh and the council has agreed to release the funds immediately,” said a source from the Dima Hasao district dairy development department. “The departure of most of the Nepali milk cultivators because of unrest and trouble in the district, the local autonomous council’s refusal to increase the price of cream and corruption in the administrative system has brought down the centre’s production,” Sarthe Engti, a resident of Umrangsu, said. The cream production centre at Umrangsu is the only such unit of its kind to be run by the state government. Right now it has 29 employees and 10 vacant posts in different categories. “The centre was established in 1972 to support 2,000-odd Nepali households, living in greater Garampani, who were involved in cream production. The department had distributed cream producing machines among the households and would collect cream once a week from the interior villages. The cream was then processed in the centre to get ghee,” a source from the department said. “They (the department) give us Rs 130 for per kg cream, but outsiders give us more than Rs 220. We are not fools to sell our cream to the department,” said Robi Thapa, a Garampani villager. According to the department source, the dairy development department has asked the local autonomous council to revise the sale and purchase rates of cream immediately.“Now we are targeting the revival of the milk societies. The dairy department plans to involve 10 to 13 households, which will be given financial support from different rural development schemes to purchase cows,” the source from the dairy department said. After the renovation, the cream production centre will be capable of collecting 500 litres of milk per day and produce 200kg cream in a week.