Protests against CBG plants: Punjab Govt to meet all stakeholders tomorrow
Ruchika M Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, August 18
At a time when Punjab is desperately seeking private investment and scientific solution to the disposal of its agriculture waste, those who have committed to investing hundreds of crores in making compressed biogas (CBG) rue that little is being done by the government to counter the alleged false narrative against their plants.
Most of the investors in CBG manufacturing, who want to use paddy straw, press mud and other agricultural waste as raw material, had their projects sanctioned two to three years ago. The state government had proposed that work on 24 CBG plants would be started this year. But protests by local residents and farmer unions at the sites of many of these plants (four in Ludhiana, one in Jalandhar) have stalled work there.
Investors claim they have already pumped in hundreds of crores. The investment by each of the CBG plant investor in the state ranges from Rs 50 crore to Rs 150 crore, depending on its CBG production capacity.
People, mainly members of farmer unions, have been protesting against these plants fearing that the chemicals produced during the making of biogas would carcinogenic and enter the earth and thus the food chain. In cases, where CBG plants were using press mud for making CBG, there have been protests because of the foul smell emanating from biogas units.
Some of the CBG producers, who have plants in other states, have taken protesters on visits to their other plants, but to little avail. To counter this, the Punjab Government has convened a meeting of biogas plant owners, community health experts, scientists and protesters in Ludhiana on Tuesday.
VK Singh, Special Chief Secretary to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, will be present at the meeting. “We are trying to bring all stakeholders on the table and initiate a scientific discussion on the issue so that all sides form an informed opinion,” he said.
As many as 38 plants have been allocated to Punjab, but only three are operational. Sobhan Sahu, managing partner of Farm Gas Pvt Ltd., having a biogas plant at Ghungrali Rajputan near Khanna, rued that his plant became operational in September 2022, but was forced shut by farmer unions from June this year.
