Cabinet to soon clear Bio-Diesel Mission: Raghuvansh Prasad Singh

Srinagar, Jun 22 (UNI) The Centre is soon going to launch the National Bio-diesel Mission to prevent a fuel crisis in the country, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said today.

Addressing the Editors Conference on Social Infrastructure here, Dr Singh said the proposal for launching the mission would be presented before the Union Cabinet in the next couple of weeks. At present the financial implication of the project is being assessed by the ministry.

He said that under the Mission, extensive plantation of Jatropha would be made on waste and degraded land. Even the railways would plant Jatropha on its land. Chhatisgarh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu governments are already working on Jatropha plantations.

Many educational institutions like IIT and Delhi University are also working on high yielding varieties of Jatropha so that the fuel crisis facing the country could be effectively dealt with, he said.

He said that the Jammu and Kashmir government could also take up Jatropha cultivation on wasteland.

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