Decision on Amul's proposal on Delhi Milk Scheme after its corporatisation, says Pawar

The GCMMF, which owns Amul brand, has evinced interest on taking over DMS operations and has submitted a proposal to the Agriculture Ministry

The Centre will take a call on Amul's proposal to run the loss-making Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS) after the Cabinet approves corporatisation of DMS, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said on Thursday.

The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns Amul brand, has evinced interest on taking over DMS operations and has submitted a proposal to the Agriculture Ministry.

"We have not taken any decision (on Amul's proposal) Infact, there is a subject before the Cabinet to corporatise the DMS. We can think on Amul's proposal after taking the approval from the Cabinet (on corporatisation)," Pawar said.

In a meeting with GCMMF and National Dairy Development Board officials on Thursday, the minister said he discussed various issues related to milk sector including ways to handle surplus supply of 1.12 lakh tonnes of milk powder in the country.

Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS) comes under the Agriculture Ministry.

The Ministry has been toying with the idea of corporatisation of DMS for some time.

In 2004, the Centre had even offered to transfer DMS to the Delhi government, but the latter refused to accept the proposal.

GCMMF, which clocked sales turnover of Rs 11,668 crores in the 2011-12 fiscal, is keen to run DMS plant as it would help increase Amul's presence in the national capital region.

"The ministry is positive about our proposal. The modalities are not yet finalised. We are interested in having a long-term lease arrangement with DMS," GCMMF Chairman Vipul Chaudhary had said yesterday.

The DMS has milk production and packaging capacity of 5 lakh litres per day, besides a network of 1298 outlets in the NCR.

The government-owned dairy unit has 800 employees, but the milk production is only about 2.5 lakh litres per day. Delhi is the largest market for Amul with a daily sale of 24 lakh litres. Amul has processing capacity of 40 lakh litres per day in Delhi-NCR.