Imphal, December 28: Thanks to the prolonged negligence the once successful Central Dairy Farm located at Porompat is on the brink of a premature death, with almost the entire machinery lying in shambles and few usable equipment lying in rot and rust.

Capable of churning out 3000 litres of milk on daily basis in the mid 70s, both the boiler machines at the unit have broken down now with the other equipment gathering dust.

To take stock of the current position of the farm, officials from the office of the Auditor General and some media-persons went on a joint inspection on December 27 but on reaching the farm site at about 2 pm found the office doors sealed.

No employees could be seen in the office vicinity and an employee residing nearby had to be called to take the media-persons around.

With the few cattle heads still keeping the farm alive, 120 litres of milk can be produced but due to the defunct boilers, the milk have to be supplied in the raw form with the problem sometimes getting compounded as the cold storage is also undergoing repairing works.

The original dairy plants and most of the machines are lying in rust.

Making the farm even worse is the failure to utilise the Central assistance amount of Rs 224.10 lakh released in 1994-99 under the Integrated Dairy Development Project (IDDP) to revive the unit.

As suggested by the State Government, the National Dairy Development Board had also recommended replacing the necessary equipment to enable the farm produce at least 10,000 litres of milk per day which, however, have not been implemented.

The NDDB had even provided Rs 57.95 lakhs advance amount in 1997 from which the new purchased items reached the plant site one year later.

But even though ten years have passed since the arrival of the machine parts, the parts have not been installed till date and were scattered and exposed to the hazards of nature.

Work for installation of refrigeration plants at the farm was also taken up by a Kolkata based firm but had to be abandoned in 2001 after almost 40 percent of the installation works were completed.

Absence of civil works at the farm is said to be the main cause for failure of installation/repairing activities.

Same reason was also cited for non-completion of steam boilers ad chimney installation works assigned to a Kolkata based firm.

The Central Government had targeted 1996-97 as cut off year for taking up IDDP but which Manipur lagged behind by a clear distance.

Meanwhile, press sources revealed that out of Rs 224.10 lakhs provided by the then Central Government State authorities released on Rs 174.53 lakhs with the remaining sum added to the State account (No 8449).

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