Patna, (Bihar Times): Even as the sugarcane farmers
went on warpath in West Champaran district on Monday
the Bihar government is opposing the Union
government’s December 28 notification amending the
1966 Sugarcane Control Order, to enable direct usage
of sugarcane juice for ethanol.
A large number of sugarcane growers on Monday indulged
in road and rail blockades in Bettiah in protest
against the non-payment of Rs 18 crore due to them.
They also raised slogans against the state government
and stopped Satyagrah Express for four hours.
In such a situation the state government’s ambition to
produce ethanol sounds somewhat bizarre. For producing
ethanol huge amount of sugarcane will have to be
produced. As sugarcane’s production requires huge
amount of water many environmentalists are opposing
its indiscriminate growth.
Bihar produces only two per cent sugarcane yet the
state government is still hopeful of producing a large
amount of ethanol. Sugarcane minister Nitish Mishra
claims that Reliance Industries and Hindustan
Petroleum Corporation Ltd have shown interest in
producing ethanol. Therefore, the state government
sees the Centre’s notification as a move against Bihar
though sugarcane is produced in much higher amount in
Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.
According to the Centre’s notification, a mill can use
sugarcane juice for ethanol production only if it
produces sugar. This implies that Reliance and HPCL
will have to make sugar in order to produce ethanol.