The claim by Minister for Dairy Products K.T. Rajendra Balaji that a good part of the private milk being sold in the State was adulterated has shifted the focus to Government-run Aavin milk where poor marketing has made it stay way behind other brands despite qualitative advantage.

Activists in the City feel that creating proper awareness about the brand and marketing its products properly, Aavin can well be the top selling brand. And they say official lethargy has led to the downfall of the dairy industry in general and Aavin in particular.

C.M. Jayaraman, president of the Citizen’s Voice Club, a consumer organisation based in Coimbatore, said officials should find alternative ways to market dairy products.

“The initial problem we have is that most of the outlets in the city do not give importance to dairy products but to oil-fried items that should not be sold in an Aavin outlet,” he said. It is sad to note that some of these outlets have very limited dairy products.

“There are some outlets that vigorously market and sell dairy products like milk kova, buttermilk, ghee, butter and milk. The outlet in the Railway Station is a very example of such strategy,” he told the Covai Post.

Jayaraman also said alternative strategies, including installation of automatic vending machines in important places like railway stations and bus-stops, would prove helpful to the Government.

“There should be a system where people can collect dairy products using a card provided to them. This will help boost the income,” he proposed.

Blaming officials for not conducting regular checks in such stalls that sell non-dairy products, another Coimbatore-based activist claimed that officials should conduct regular inspections. “There should be flying squads that go for regular checks and see if non-dairy products are sold. They should be banned from Aavin stalls. The quality of private milk should also be checked regularly,” he added.

However, customers at Aavin outlets welcomed non-dairy products as they feel that the cost is lesser than elsewhere. “Let them not ban non-dairy products and market more dairy products,” said K. Hari, a customer at an outlet near Saibaba Colony.

An Aavin official told Covai Post that dairy products were being marketed well and squads were also inspecting the outlets in the district to check adulteration and sale of non-dairy products.