[Kausilwf]

Starting Friday, Aavin milk will cost Rs.24 a litre, a hike of Rs.6.25, and the minimum bus fare in town will be Rs.3 instead of Rs.2. The maximum bus fare in Chennai will be Rs.14, not Rs.12, while the fare has increased from Rs.7 to Rs.12 in other towns.

Announcing cabinet decisions in an address on Jaya TV, Ms Jayalalithaa justified the hike -first in more than a decade -saying public sector units were on the brink of a collapse and prices in other southern states were still higher.

The Chief Minister said gross mismanagement by the previous DMK regime had made public sector undertakings bankrupt. She also hit out at the Congressled UPA at the Centre for meting out stepmotherly treatment to states ruled by other parties. Ms Jayalalithaa said UPA ally Mamata Banerjee's West Bengal recently received a special package of Rs.21,614 crore, but the Centre was sitting on a request for a similar package to TN.

Official sources said transport corporations were expected to generate an additional Rs.2,100 crore annually and Aavin Rs.130 crore after the revision enabling them to break even.

At present, the corporations sustain a loss of Rs.2,500 crore every year. As on March 31, 2011, the accumulated loss of all eight transport corporations was Rs.6,150 crore, while that of TNEB was Rs.40,659 crore.

Ms. Jayalalithaa said TNEB would soon submit proposals for tariff revision and TNERC will decide on its quantum after eliciting public views.

Despite the transport corporations suffering huge losses in the wake of successive diesel price hikes, the DMK government had not touched bus fares.

There was a rise in electricity tariff two years ago, but it was marginal. The AIADMK government’s decision on Thursday to hike the price of toned milk from Rs.17.75 to Rs.24 per litre has upset consumers. The last Rs2 milk price hike had happened in the DMK regime in September 2009.

Aavin procures 24 lakh litres per day from 17 district cooperative milk producer unions in 30 districts.

It supplies toned, doubled toned, standardized and full-cream. Thursday’s price hike is for toned milk, which is cheaper than other varieties. Justifying the hike, Chief Minister Ms J. Jayalalithaa said her government still provided milk at a less price than the market rate.

“Compared to the price of milk in other southern states, the price of Aavin milk is less,” she said. B. Vanathi, a schoolteacher in Nungambakkam, said the hike had stretched her monthly budget by Rs.180.

“I was spending Rs.533 a month for milk. With the price hike, I will have to shell out Rs180 extra. I cannot cut consumption of milk by my children. Milk is the most nutritious food that I mix with bread or oats in the mornings for my two kids as I rush to work,” she said.

Like Vanathi, many mothers in the city are worried. The recent rise in petrol prices and essentials has already burnt a hole in pockets of consumers and traders. Tea shop owners will now be forced to increase prices.

-dc chn