Mangaluru: Raviraj Hegde, president of the Dakshina Kannada Milk Producers’ Union, said on Wednesday that the union will supply 180 ml of Trupti milk packet free with every packet of Nandini milk (500 ml, one litre, six litre packets) in Udupi and Dakshina Kannada districts on Thursday.

Addressing presspersons here, Mr. Hegde said that the milk storage of the union had increased. Hence the union had decided to pass on some of the benefits to the consumers.

The Trupti milk packet has a shelf life of 90 days. The union has estimated that the free distribution of Trupti milk packet to the customers for a single day would cost it ₹62 lakh.

The union had made arrangements to see that the Trupti milk packets were distributed for free to the houses and outlets where Nandini milk was supplied.

A meeting had been held with all the dealers and they had been told to make arrangements for the distribution of the Trupti milk packets along with Nandini milk packets.

Supervisory teams had also been formed to see that Trupti milk packets were distributed with Nandini milk packets on Thursday, he said.

Mr. Hegde said that parents should encourage their children to drink instead of carbonated drinks. Milk was good for the health of children.

The milk produced by the union was unadulterated and went through many checks before it was supplied. The demand for Nandini milk was evident by the fact that many people asked for it, he said. A hi-tech milk dairy of 2.5 lakh litre capacity was being constructed at Uppoor village in Udupi district by the Union at an estimated cost of ₹100 crore. This was because the storage capacity at the present milk dairy at Manipal was not enough to meet the demand.