Engulfed in the menace of stubble burning, the Punjab Government will soon set up projects across the State to produce ethanol fuel from crop stubble. For the same, the state government and the Centre will sign an memorandum of understanding.
The “first such project” will be set up at Bathinda at a cost of `500 crore and its foundation stone will be laid after two weeks, announced Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal and Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pardhan after launching the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana on Friday.
Sukhbir said, “These ethanol units would reduce dependence for fuel requirement from the Arabian countries and Central Asian countries.” Pardhan informed that Punjab produces more than 50 lakh tonne crop stubble in a season, which would be used as a raw material for the fuel units. He also announced that in first phase, ten ethanol units would be set up in various districts in Punjab which would play an important role to redress the issue of pollution.
Meanwhile, interacting with mediapersons, the Deputy Chief Minister said that these fuel projects would be a big push for the economy of the state as the farmers of Punjab would get an additional income of `4,000 crore from crop stubble.
Sukhbir informed that under this scheme, lPG connections and steel chullas would be provided to all seven lakh BPl households who have no domestic gas connections in Punjab. He also said out of total 65 lakh households in the State, about seven lakh were using kerosene and other traditional methods for cooking etc, adding that the scheme would provide smoke free kitchen to the women in the each household.
Union Minister for State Vijay Sampla said that providing lPG connections to BPl households will ensure universal coverage of cooking gas in the country. The scheme of providing clean cooking fuel will also reduce pollution and the time spent on cooking besides providing employment for rural youth in the supply chain of cooking gas, he said.
As a symbolic launch of the scheme, 10 women from BPl families were handed over connections and chullas by
Sukhbir Badal, MOS Dharmendra Pradhan along with Vijay Sampla.