Aarey stall owners, working under the Brihanmumbai Milk Yojana, on Monday gathered outside the office of commissioner, Worli Dairy, Mumbai. The Aarey centre owners, backed by the Brihanmumbai Doodh Yojana Kendrachalak Welfare Association, are opposing the handing over of Aarey centres to Mahananda Dairy, without taking them into consideration. At 11 am on Monday, around 150-175 ‘Aarey Sarita’ stall owners assembled at Worli for a peaceful protest.

The Maharashtra government had established dairies in Aarey, Worli and Kurla under the Brihanmumbai Milk Scheme in the 1960s and built wooden Aarey stalls at various places in Mumbai for milk distribution to provide healthy milk and milk products to people in Mumbai. “Since then, we participated in this service and contributed to it. In the beginning, we used to do sales work at these milk centres and in return we were given a salary by the government,” the letter states.