Government Told to Decide Fast on Bio-Fuels Programme: Parliament Panel
(NYDailyNews) Rapping the rural development ministry’s land resources department for the “inordinate delay” in finalising a bio-fuels programme, a parliamentary panel has sought for the matter be placed before the cabinet at the earliest for a decision on its continuance.
The Standing Committee on Rural Development, in its report on the demands for grants of the land resources department, noted that the bio-fuels programme was started in 2003 and “in-principle” approval had been given for “demonstration phase” involving plantation over 300,000 hectares of bio-diesel producing non-edible oilseeds (jatropha and pongamia) on degraded forest and waste land.
…It noted that funds have not been allocated for bio-fuels programme in the current fiscal (2012-13) as the decision on its future “has been pending for long.”
…A senior official of the department told the panel that a study by TERI had found the programme to be financially unviable. READ MORE and MORE (Biofuels Digest Asia)



