Mysore unit to supply 20 lakh ink bottles for polls

The only public sector industrial unit that manufactures indelible ink to mark the voters, casting votes in the country, the Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd. (Mylac) is busy churning out the ink to meet the deadline set by the Election Commission, its main customer.

Mylac has to supply 20 lakh HDPE bottles of indelible ink for the ensuing Lok Sabha elections. It has supplied seven lakh bottles to 16 States already and is gearing up production for the supply of remaining 13 lakh bottles. The Election Commission has asked the State Undertaking to supply 10 ML bottles of ink. A bottle of ink will mark the fingers of around 700 voters. Established in 1937 and converted into a public sector undertaking in 1947, Mylac has specialised in manufacture and supply of the marker ink for all the parliamentary, assembly and local body elections in India since 1962. It is exporting the ink to various countries too to meet their election requirements.

Mylac plans to make available the ink before March 20 to meet the demand for the first three phases of the Lok Sabha polls and has already dispatched consignments to Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Dadar-Nagarhaveli, Tripura, Goa, Pondichery, Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

The requirements for the subsequent two stages of elections will be met before April first week, Mylac Chairman M.V.Ravishankar briefed newsmen on Tuesday. The requirement of Uttar Pradesh is the highest with 2.86 lakh bottles, followed by Andhra Pradesh (2 lakh), Bihar (1,84,690) and Maharashtra (1.84 lakh).

Major requirements are also needed by states like West Bengal (1.46 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (1.05 lakh), Guajarat (99,000), Tamil Nadu (96,000), and Rajasthan (93,600). Karnataka requires a lakh of bottles. The least requirement is from Lakshadweep 120, followed by Dadar-Nagarhaveli 400, Andaman-Nicobar and Daman 1,000 bottles each.

One among the profit making public sector units of Karnataka, it has been declaring dividend almost consistently,

Mylac is also exporting 1.20 lakh bottles of 10 ml ink to South Africa for its April 22 general elections. In the last few months, it has exported to countries like Mangolia, Cambodia and Maldives. Nepal has sought marker pens instead of ink in bottles. Each pen of five ml ink will mark 400 voters and it will be exported in April.

Having a networth of over Rs 1,112 lakh, Mylac has set a target of Rs 1,050 lakh turnover for the current year. During 2007-08, it achieved sales of Rs 895 lakh and earned a profit of Rs 141.83 lakh.

The major share came from the indelible ink, Rs 501 lakh (against the target of Rs 450 lakh). The rest of the earnings of Rs 393.95 lakh came from paint. It declared a dividend of Rs 41.46 lakh (40 per cent), the same as the previous year.