Stern actions will be taken against corrupt Milk Vita officials and engineers to stop irregularities at the state-owned entity, State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Swapan Bhattacharjee said today.

He came up with the warning at Milk Vita's special general meeting and management committee election at the Dhugdha Bhaban in Dhaka city.

Swapan recognised irregularities at Milk Vita and said that corruption stemmed the growth of cooperatives in Bangladesh.

He also warned of taking action against private dairy farms who evade taxes.

The state minister asked the Milk Vita management to infuse dynamism into its marketing department and come up with plans to minimise losses.

Rural Development and Cooperatives Division Secretary Md Kamal Uddin Talukder said Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman set up Milk Vita to meet the nutritional demand of the country's poor people.

"We want to develop our local sector so that we don't have to import milk," he said.