'Bio-Diesel'mission will be launched next yr:Raghuvansh

Hyderabad, Sep 1 (UNI) The Union Government will launch a 'Bio-Diesel Mission' in 4.5 hectares of land in the country from next year, Union Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh said today.

Speaking at a programme organised on the occasion of the birth centenary year of late S K Dey, who was the first Union Minister for Panchayatraj and Community development at the National Institute of Rural Development (NIRD) here, Mr Singh said the draft plan had been prepared and it would be sent to the Cabinet soon for consent.

Of the 5.5 crore hectares of fallow land, 4.5 crore hectare land was cultivable in the country, he said adding that the objective of the mission was to promote Jatropha plantation in a big way to produce bio-diesel to meet the country's oil requirement.

The minister said Jatropa and Pongamia and other saplings would be planted in the cultivable land so as to provide employment to the poor and unemployed youth.

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