Question : OPERATION FLOOD PROGRAMME

(a) whether it is a fact that the Mother Dairies were conceptualised under the Operation Flood Programme in the country with the financial assistance from the Union Government;

(b) if so, the details thereof;

(c) whether the Flon`ble High Court of Delhi in their judgement have brought the Mother Dairy under the ambit of the Right to Information Act, 2005 and if so. the details thereof; and

(d) whether the Management of the Mother Dairies have not been sharing any info- rmation under the RTI Act, 2005, if so. the reasons thereof along with the action taken against the officials responsible for ignoring RTI Act in the Mother Dairy, Delhi?

THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR AGRICULTURE (SHRI MOHANBHAI KUNDARIYA)

(a) and (b) A number of marketing dairies were set up in major cities under the Operation Flood Programme implemented by the National Dairy Development Board. The term `Mother DAIRY`` was used to describe some large dairy plants which gene- rally receive milk from other dairies. In Operation Flood I, four such dairies were set up in the four major metros: (i) New Delhi- as a Government of India project (ii) Kolkata, West Bengal as a project of the West Bengal State Gover- nment (iii) Mumbai, Maharashtra as a unit of Government of Maharashtra`s Greater Bombay Milk Scheme and (iv) Chennai, as a project of Tamil Nadu Dairy Development Corporation.

Subsequently, marketing dairies known as `Mother Dairy` were set up in Bengaluru, Karnataka as a unit of the Karnataka Milk Federation, in Gandhinagar, Gujarat as a unit of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited and in Hyderabad, by the Nalgonda Rangareddy District Milk Union.

(c) NDDB has informed that the Hon`ble High Court of Delhi had held the RTI Act is applicable to Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Private Limited vide its order dated 2.2.2015 which was stayed by the Division Bench of the High Court vide its order dated 17.3.2015 and hence the matter is subjudice and is pending for adjudication before the Division Bench of Hon`ble Delhi High Court

(d) Does not arise in view of (c) above.