HC hears arguments on bifurcation of Vijaya dairy

A two-judge bench of the High Court at Hyderabad comprising acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice U Durga Prasad Rao heard inconclusively the arguments by the Advocates General of Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh governments on the question of distribution and rights of Vijaya Milk.

The bench was dealing with a petition filed by the government of AP questioning the unilateral takeover of the Federation by the Telangana State government.

Dammalapati Srinivas, Advocate General of AP, complained that the government of AP was unable to process milk at the milk processing factory at Lalapet in the city as it was taken over by the Telangana State government.

Telangana State Advocate General K Ramakrishna Reddy complained that the government of Andhra Pradesh was spoiling the name of Vijaya milk in the state of Telangana State by selling unprocessed milk.

The AP government pointed out that until the Central government bifurcated the Federation, the rights of distribution and processing of milk was with the government of AP.

The old AP Corporation and the new Telangana Dairy Development Cooperative Federation were selling milk in Hyderabad with the same brand name ‘Vijaya.’

When the bench questioned as to why AP was not paying salaries to 15 staff members of AP origin working in the head office even though the Telangana State Federation was paying salaries 34 staff members in the same office,

the AP Advocate General said Hyderabad market accounted for 70 per cent of the Federation’s total business and they had lost it and hence it was struggling to pay the salaries.

“It is not possible for a deficit budget State like AP to go on paying salaries to the employees of the common corporations.

“Hence we are trying to meet the expenditure by generating income through selling milk in Hyderabad,” he said.

AP is selling milk in Hyderabad through some private operators, Telangana State Advocate General alleged. The bench adjourned the matter to Monday.