Bio-ethanol plants in all Punjab districts: Sukhbir Badal

Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal today said that bio-ethanol plants would come up in every district of Punjab to tackle the problem of pollution due to bio-mass burning.
Badal was addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone of the first bio-ethanol plant of Punjab at Tarkhanwala village in the presence of Union Minister for Food Processing Industries Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
He said that this would also augment the income of farmers in the state.
MLA from Talwandi Sabo Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu and Executive Director of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited Anil Pande were also present on the occasion.

Badal said the establishment of this bio-ethanol plant would benefit both Punjab and the rest of the country, apart from the farming community.
He also said Punjab would become pollution-free with this plant coming to fruition and Malwa region would be more prosperous.

The Deputy Chief Minister said the state has been a witness to unprecedented development during the past 10 years and during the next 5 years, the SAD-BJP government has set a target to make all the streets and drains of all the villages of the state concretised, besides providing solar lights and sewerage along with clean drinking water.

He also divulged that on forming the government for third consecutive time, the SAD-BJP government would construct colonies in the villages, thereby providing 5 lakh houses to the poor.
He said that in addition to the existing 200 skill centers, during the course of next 5 years, one skill centre would be constructed for every 5 villages.
Taking pot-shots at PPCC President Captain Amarinder Singh, the Deputy Chief Minister said the Congress party is being run by PK (poll strategist Prashant Kishore) in Punjab who has no knowledge about the history and culture of the state.
Quipping on the form filling drive of the Congress regarding loan waiver, Badal said that if Captain Amarinder is so serious about this issue, then he should give an undertaking that he would donate his palace to the people of Punjab in case he fails to live up to his promise.

Calling Congress an "anti -Punjab" party, the Deputy Chief Minister said that this party is riddled with the factionalism and party vice president Rahul Gandhi is also contributing to the downfall of the party which would suffer a fate far worse than 2012.
He also said that being rock solid SAD-BJP alliance, it would give a crushing defeat to Congress and AAP.
Harsimrat said this plant would be established in 49
acres and oil from bio-mass will be produced for vehicle consumption and domestic gas, besides fertilisers.
The Union Minister also said that the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited would open 12 such plants across the country and beginning has been made from Punjab.

Criticising the "anti people polices" of the Congress and AAP, she appealed to the people to ensure forming of SAD-BJP government again so as to further accelerate the pace of development in the state.
She said the plant would have the consumption capacity of 400 tonnes of bio-mass daily with a capacity to produce of 100 kilo litres of ethanol daily to the tune of an annual production capacity of 3.20 crore litres ethanol.
She also said this would result in fulfilling 26 per cent ethanol related need of the state.
Divulging more, the Union Minister said that around 1200-1300 people would get employment as a result of this plant, whereas 3 lakh farmers would be able to earn more than Rs 19.20 crore annually.

She also added that the project would see preparing of 32000 metric tonnes of bio fertiliser annually which would increase productivity of the soil of the state.
Apart from this, the plant would also manufacture CNG which would be used for domestic gas and vehicles.
In his address through video conferencing, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said that the plant would augment the income of the farmers selling their bio-mass to the plant and furthermore the environment of the state would also be saved from pollution.
Pradhan could not attend the function due to inclement weather.

On the occasion, Anil Pandey said this plant would increase the prosperity of farmers besides ridding the region of the menace of pollution.
The capacity of Guru Gobind Singh refinery is being increased from 9 million metric tonnes annually to 12 million metric tonnes which would fulfil the oil related needs of the north Indian region, she added.