KFL Dismisses ‘No Subsidy’ Claims; Threatens Legal Action Against Rumour-mongers

THRISSUR:
Kerala Feeds Ltd (KFL) today dismissed allegations that the PSU was not extending the state government’s Covid-time subsidy for dairy farmers, adding that the company will be moving legally against those making such “baseless claims”.

KFL Chairman K S Indusekharan Nair said there was no truth in rumours that the PSU was not keeping its promise in aiding farmers facing the ill-effects of the pandemic.

Last year, the government had announced a programme for the relief of the state’s dairy farmers who had weathered the pandemic-induced crisis. The scheme facilitated a Rs-400 discount on every 50-kg bag of KFL feed. The farmers were announced eligible to receive the product if they paid the cash minus the subsidy amount.

KFL said the government chose to not directly disburse the subsidy to the farmers (under the DBT scheme), suspecting that such doing it might delay the supply of the feed. The product-distribution project was carried out efficiently with KFL in association with another PSU, Milma.

A look at May 2021 accounts will show KFL was selling the product at Rs 85 less than the market price of a bag of cattle-feed. The PSU doesn’t hike prices even if the rates of raw materials keep rising, officials pointed out.

KFL carries out welfare projects for farmers in its own capacity as a PSU and in adherence to the spirit of the state government, the company’s Managing Director Dr B Sreekumar said. Even amid the second wave of Covid-19, the company has 1,750 tonnes of project ready for disbursal, he added.

Detractors of KFL won’t win in their efforts to tarnish the image of the company, he said, deploring such evil tactics and calling for the need to defeat them.

The 1995-founded KFL, which is headquartered in Kallettumkara near Irinjalakuda of this district, produces three varieties of cattle feed, besides feed for goat, hen, rabbit and mineral-rich Keramin and haystacks.