Punjab: Expert panel to examine issue of compressed biogas plants

The Punjab Government has offered to form an expert committee to examine all issues related to the compressed biogas plants (CBG) that have drawn the ire of some farmer unions.

The committee will be formed in the next 10 days and will comprise experts from health, agriculture and environmental sciences. They will study the health and environmental aspects of the compressed biogas plants and come up with their findings soon, New and Renewable Energy Minister Aman Arora told The Tribune.

The decision to form the committee was taken at a meeting of 34 representatives of the Cancer Gas Factories Coordination Sangharsh Committee headed by its coordinator Sukhdev Singh and drug scientist BS Aulukh, with a Cabinet sub-committee today. Aulukh later told The Tribune that their representatives would also be part of the expert committee.

Farmers and residents in areas where the plants are being set up have been opposing the move due to the fear that the chemicals released during the making of CBG could be carcinogenic and could enter the food chain, afflicting more people with cancer.

In some cases, where the press mud is used as raw material, the residents have objected to the foul smell originating due to its use, making lives of people living in the vicinity difficult.

For the past four months, dharnas are being organised by farmers and residents outside four plants in Ludhiana and one each in Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur. While some plants are under construction, some have already become operational, but have been forced shut.

This has put on hold the government plans to move towards ex-situ stubble management ahead of the paddy harvesting, blocking investment worth hundreds of crores.