With the Election Commission announcing the schedule of the Presidential elections, the Mysuru-based Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited (MPVL), a Government of Karnataka undertaking, has turned busy as it has the task of supplying marker pens for the election to the country’s highest office.
MPVL Managing Director Kumaraswamy told The Hindu: “The EC has told us to keep the marker pens ready for the elections. We are yet to get the number of pens to be supplied besides other details. We are awaiting further information from the EC but the production of the pens has begun.”
The Presidential polls will take place on July 18. “Once we get the EC instructions, we will supply the pens,” the MD said.
The first ever use of marker pens supplied from Mysuru was during the Presidential election in 2017.
Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd is the sole supplier of indelible ink for elections since decades.
On the ‘instructions’ from the Election Commission, the MPVL developed the prototypes of the marker pens (containing indelible ink) with technical support from the National Physical Laboratory, the National Research Development Corporation, and the National Chemical Laboratory.
Each pen can apply mark on 1,000 voters and is convenient to carry unlike the ‘ink’ vials.
MPVL is reckoned to be one of its kind among the PSUs in the country to manufacture indelible ink. Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, the erstwhile maharaja of Mysuru, established the company in 1937. MPVL has also registered with UNDP and supplies ink for elections in foreign countries.
The ink production began in the 1960s based on a special chemical combination formulated by the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi.
