Mysore: Five lakh ink bottles have been sent to five poll-bound states by Mysore Paints & Varnish Limited (known as MyLac Company) on the request of the Election Commissions of the respective states.
Speaking to ETV Bharat, NV Phaneesh, president of MyLac said, "Wherever they are held in the country we will provide indelible ink required for the elections. Assembly Election is going to take place this year in five states. Ink bottles have been demanded by the Election Commission of the states since last November. We have already supplied Ink bottles to Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand as much as they asked. But for Uttar Pradesh, we supplied 2 lakh bottles out of 4 lakh bottles. We will supply the remaining 2 lakh bottles in two to three days. Through this, total transaction of Rs.8,96,72,000 has done with our company".
MyLac, located in the city of Mysore, Karnataka, is the only company in India authorised to produce indelible ink used in elections to prevent people from voting multiple times. The company is owned and operated by the Government of Karnataka.
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"The Election Commission is demanding marker pens instead of ink bottles. So we went through a long experiment and made a marker pen. We will conduct a clinical trial in the presence of the Election Commission Officers. I hope it will be successful", Phaneesh further said.
Initiated as the Mysore Lac and Paints Limited by the Maharaja of Mysore, Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar, in 1937 for manufacturing paints and related products, it became a public sector company when India gained independence in 1947.
In 1962, it was selected to manufacture indelible ink, which was first used in the third general election of India. Among the poll bound states, Uttar Pradesh has demanded 4 lakh ink bottles of 10cc. Punjab, Goa, Manipur and Uttarakhand on the other hand have asked for 62,000, 5,000, 7,000 and 30,000 bottles respectively.
