Amid COVID-19 pandemic, govt allows surplus rice for making alcohol-based hand sanitisers

New Delhi, Apr 20: The central government on Monday allowed the surplus rice available with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to be converted to ethanol for making alcohol-based hand sanitisers.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the NBCC chaired by Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan, which "approved that the surplus rice available with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) may be converted to ethanol for utilisation in making alcohol-based hand-sanitisers and in blending for Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme".

In a statement, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas said a section of the National Policy on Biofuels, 2018, allows for the conversion of surplus quantities of food grains to ethanol, based on the approval of the National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC), during an agriculture crop year when there is projected oversupply of food grains as anticipated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare.

The decision comes at a time when there has been a huge controversy over reports that many of India's poorest were going hungry because of the nationwide lockdown, even though the godowns of the Food Corporation of India have been full.