Business spoilt as cops ‘milk’ Aavin agents in city

Talking to DTNext, the association’s state president SA Ponnusamy said, “I have sent registered letters on Thursday to the TN DGP and Chennai Police Commissioner on this issue.” Explaining further, he said, “I was forced to approach top officers following a T Nagar milk agent requesting action since the police helped themselves to a few packets of milk. This practice also delayed milk supply to genuine consumers the agent said,” he added. 

According to him, the usual practice for policemen completing their night rounds on two and four-wheelers was to approach milk agents who had sachet trays unloaded from supply vans and kept on the pavement to demand a minimum of two half litre packets. They would thus collect between 20 and 30 packets on a route and then sell them for about Rs.15 or Rs.17 (as against the Rs.20 normal rate) to small shops. Thus they pocketed   anything between Rs.375-425 per day. 

“I hope police will allow milk agents to function peacefully” Ponnusamy said. But their woes do not end there. Though the association had complained to the Police Commissioner one and a half years ago about the loss of nearly 50,000 milk trays in the Chennai, Tiruvallur, and Kanchipuram areas, there was no action. “This despite our providing the police with CCTV footage and the registration number of a suspected vehicle. In tracking the vehicle, we located it at Ponneri and the owner in Red Hills. But when we visited the spot, we found that the address was fictitious.” 

A senior Aavin official when asked if the milk major had received complaints from its agents on the police’s practice of taking away   packets or of milk trays being stolen, he said, “ Complaints could have come to lower level officials, but whether they initiated action has to be verified.” Speaking to this newspaper, a top police official said he was unaware of such a practice but said would look into complaints.