Calcutta, April 14: The milk is on the boil again with Amul being accused of stoking the fire.

Alleging that Amul has dumped milk in the city markets by offering an array of discounts to consumers and distributors, the other players in the industry, Metro Dairy, and Mother Dairy, have taken up the case with the state government.

?All we want is a level-playing field with Amul,? said Sumit Deb, managing director, Metro Dairy.

The local dairies have complained that Amul is not abiding by the milk and milk products control order (MMPO) and acting against the interest of the milk cooperatives in Bengal by importing liquid milk from Gujarat and selling it at lower prices.

?I know what they are doing is not right. I have requested Amul to procure liquid milk from the state and produce in accordance to the MMPO guidelines. But they are not listening to us,? said animal resources development minister Anisur Rahaman, adding that Amul is consuming only around 10,000 litres of liquid milk from the state?s cooperatives.

Questions are also being raised on the quality of the milk.

Officials at Amul?s city office are unfazed by the criticism and claim that they are not flouting any norms.

Amul does not have any plants in the state and is selling its branded packaged milk in the state, processed at Indian Dairy Products and Dollons Food Products, for the past three months. Its share of the city?s packaged milk market ? around 10 lakh litres ? has already reached over 15 per cent, around 1,60,000 litres.

?But, according to MMPO norms, they are not permitted to produce more than 50,000 litres. Recently, they have applied for capacity expansion to 80,000 litres. But even taking that into account, they are overproducing,? said Rahaman, who has already taken up the mater with Verghese Kurien, chairman, Amul.

Industry insiders argue that Amul?s aggressive entry into the market is a fallout of the tussle between Kurien and Amrita Patel, chairperson, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).

NDDB, which runs Mother Dairy in Delhi, stopped procurement of milk from Amul creating surplus with Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, better known as Amul.

?Now Kurien wants to settle scores with Patel by exporting the excess milk to other states and thus crippling the cooperatives, which are under NDDB,? said an industry insider.

But Raghu Chattopadhyay, the officer on special duty in Amul?s city office, claimed that the company is sourcing liquid milk from Bhagirathi, Ichhamati and Kishan cooperatives. ?We had even absorbed their supplies when the cooperatives had excess production. And we import milk when local cooperatives fail to meet our quality specifications and demand,? he said.