'No Personal Benefit...: Nitin Gadkari Dismisses Ethanol Benefit Claims, Challenges Critics For Evidence

As the nation is busy talking about Ethanol and the cons of using it in their vehicle, Union Road and Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari has strongly defended the Centre's ethanol blending programme, saying it has not damaged vehicles and has helped India to slide down the dependency in the imported fuel.

Not just this, he further dismissed the allegations of being personally benefited from this policy calling such allegations baseless.

Speaking in an interview with India Today TV, Gadkari said the ethanol programme was introduced after extensive consultation with experts and government departments, and not as an individual decision.

Gadkari Rejects Conflict of Interest Claims

Speaking with Indian Today, Gadkari said that his involvement in etahnol is extremely small and his share in the ethanol production is only 0.7 %.

He stated that his family's sugar business existed years ahead of the government's ethanol-blending programme was introduced. Therefore, claims of having a personal benefit makes no sense. He added that India's production of Ethanol is nearly 1,500 cr litres each year through 550 ethanol producing units, while his contribution remains only a tiny fraction of the total production.

Gadkari cleared that the Ethanol production is simply reducing India's dependency on imported crude oil while creating a better market for agricultural products which in turn majorly benefits farmers.

Gadkari added that the ethanol policy was prepared after discussions with the Petroleum Ministry, scientific experts and the Union Cabinet, making it a collective decision rather than one taken by a single individual.

Ethanol Damages Vehicles?

In answer to the claims of Ethanol damaging the E20 engines, Gadkari has challenged critics to produce evidence. He said that if anyone believes their petrol vehicle has been damaged because of ethanol-blended fuel, they should file a complaint with both the vehicle dealer and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

He said the the Government is ready to investigate such complaints and provide relief if Ethanol is found to be responsible.

The minister also questioned critics by asking whether they could name even two people whose vehicles had been damaged specifically because of ethanol-blended petrol.
Gadkari said leading automobile manufacturers, including Maruti Suzuki, Toyota, Tata Motors and Mahindra, have not reported any major complaints linking E20 fuel to vehicle damage.

Referring to a recent incident involving a Toyota vehicle, he said the investigation found that water contamination, and not ethanol, had caused the problem.

He also stressed that vehicles undergo years of testing and cover lakhs of kilometres before they are approved for use with ethanol-blended fuel.

Says Ethanol Is Already Used Around the World

Gadkari said that Ethanol is already being used across the world including the United States, Brazil, Japan, Germany, Thailand and Sweden and Inda is in the process of an experiment.