Farmers supplying milk to cooperative societies in the State have been casked to buy boxes of Deepavali sweets made by Aavin.

“They have placed orders with the respective societies for boxes and the payment will be adjusted against the milk payment meant for farmers. Even if we don’t want, we will have to buy these packs. If they are given for free then that is a different matter,” said a farmer from Erode.

Saravanan, a farmer from Dharmapuri, recalled that many societies had been forced to take orders for selling fire crackers a couple of years ago in a similar fashion. “Luckily that was not continued. There have been occasions when we were asked to buy milk powder too,” he added.

Sources in Aavin confirmed that orders had been taken from farmer-members for sweet boxes.

“The sweets are made from the milk they supply and we thought we will provide them an opportunity to taste the sweets. We are not forcing them and the amount is not ₹1,000 per person as being portrayed. We cannot supply for free to 4.5 lakh farmers,” the official added.

Meanwhile, farmers are worried as to when their milk dues would be settled.

“Already, the district unions have been directed to take loans from public sector banks and disburse what is due to us. This means the dues to the banks with interest would only be repaid by the unions from the farmers’ money, which is not fair,” said Ramachandran, a farmer.

A former Aavin official said the State government can bear the interest amount at least. “It can also give a revolving fund to Aavin that can be repaid by the dairy major without interest,” he said.