Exactly a day after MK Stalin had signed five crucial orders as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, one of the orders of reducing the price of the milk had caught with perplexion and invited the voices of dissent across social media as it was alleged that the Stalin-led DMK government has spiked the price of milk for Rs 6 per litre before reducing it to Rs 3. 

The supporters of the opposition parties and the critics have claimed that the DMK government has intentionally increased the price of milk at Rs 6 and then later reduced it to Rs 3. They had shared the government's order on social media as proof of what they claimed as the awful governance discharged by the newly-elected Chief Minister. 

It had stirred debate over what's the actual price and what's exactly in the government's order. As a fact check over this crucial order has become the need of the hour, we had obtained the government order and analyzed it over where it has gone wrong. It had then come to light that the current government order signed by MK Stalin has notified the order passed by the previous government in 2019 over increasing the milk price. 

The order passed my MK Stalin and issued by Tamil Nadu Dairy Secretary K Gopal has following details, 

"In the above order (indicating the earlier order), the Government (previous) had issued an order of increasing the purchase price of milk and the selling price of milk from 19.08.2019 as follows, 

A) Price of the procurement: (government's purchase)

• The current procurement price of a litre of cow's milk has increased by Rs 4 and the price is fixed at Rs 32 per litre from Rs 28 per litre.
•  The current procurement price of a litre of buffalo's milk has increased by Rs 6 and the price is fixed at Rs 41 per litre from Rs 35 per litre. 

B) Selling price: 

• The selling price of all types of milk has been increased by Rs 6 per litre - applicable to all categories of milk. (The price increase was as per the order passed by the ADMK government on 19.08.2019). The current order has mentioned it to indicate the current price of the milk across the state. 

2) In the interest of the public, the selling price of per litre milk is considered for reduction by the (current government) and the selling price for all types of milk is reduced from Rs 6 (increased by the previous government) to Rs 3 per litre. The price reduction order will come into effect from May 16th". 

Through the order, it can be learned that the previous ADMK government has raised the procurement price of milk on 19.08.2019 and it had then increased the selling price of all types of milk to Rs 6 per litre. Now, the current government has passed the order to reduce the price by Rs 3 per litre out of that 6 rupees. It must be noted that the Tamil Nadu government has not increased the milk price currently. 

The government's drive of highlighting the order of the price spike passed by its preceding government in the new one was captured wrongly by several media users who began slamming the MK Stalin-led government that it has increased the milk price by Rs 6 and reducing it by Rs 3 per litre. Some of the news agencies had also flashed that the government has increased the price of milk and the DMK members allege that the misconception over Stalin's order was a plot by the opposition parties.