Milk has been in short supply at Mother Dairy outlets in several parts of the city for the past few days with the price of skimmed milk powder rising and cooperatives struggling to provide the usual quota to the state-run unit.

The crisis deepened on Friday with milk on high demand for Shivaratri, when milk is poured on idols of Shiva as part of the rituals.

Mother Dairy, sources said, has over 250 outlets in the city and its adjoining areas and sources some of its supply from milk cooperatives.

The state-run unit supplies around two lakh litres of milk every day, of which 75,000 litres is procured from milk cooperatives societies such as Bhagirathi Cooperative, Kangsabati Cooperative, Kishan Cooperative and Damodar Cooperative.

The supply of milk to various outlets has dropped by around 20,000 litres over the past few days, forcing the company to send out its own vehicles carrying milk to some pockets of the city, officials said. But even that has proved insufficient.

The price of skimmed milk powder has gone up and farmers have been struggling to provide the daily quota of milk, officials said.

“Skimmed milk is useful in preserving milk and separating fat content,” a senior official of the animal husbandry department overseeing operations of Mother Dairy said. “Any price fluctuation will obviously hit the supply of milk.”

Operators of several Mother Dairy outlets in Salt Lake, Kasba, Tollygunge and Burrabazar said milk distributors have been supplying less than the daily quota.

“We need around 10 litres of milk every morning and close to 70 litres in the evenings,” said Arun Panda, the owner of a milk outlet in Haltu, Kasba. “The distributor has said supply is irregular and so we will have to manage with less than that for the next few days.”

“We have spoken to several milk societies. The situation would be normalised within the next few days,” a senior official of Mother Dairy said.

The animal husbandry department has written to the finance department seeking help in procuring raw materials so that the demand-supply gap is bridged, sources said.