‘Create wealth through Gobardhan’

Girja Shankar Kaura

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 25

Pushing forward with his ambitious Swachh Bharat campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today urged people to undertake newer methods of waste management, especially animal and rural waste, and create wealth through it.

In his monthly address to the nation in Mann Ki Baat, he coined the phrase “Waste to wealth, waste to energy” and said the initiative, called Gobardhan (literally, wealth from cowdung) was largely targeted at the rural sector.

Modi said around three million tonnes of animal and kitchen waste had already been converted into electricity under the scheme. He said the initiative had several benefits, including power supply to rural homes, cleaner villages and increased earnings for farmers. He said the aim of “Gobardhan” (Galvanising Organic Bio Agro Resources) was to ensure cleanliness in villages and generate wealth and energy by converting cattle dung and solid agricultural waste into compost and biogas.

He said India had the highest cattle population (around 300 million) in the world, with a daily output of three million tonnes of dung. Some European countries and China use animal dung and other bio-waste to produce energy. But India lacked full capacity utilisation on this front, he said.

A target had now been set to use cattle dung, agricultural and kitchen waste to produce biogas-based energy, he said. “I urge entrepreneurs, especially our sisters residing in rural India, to step forward, and through the creation of self-help groups and cooperative societies extract full advantage from this opportunity.”

He said a woman’s power today underlined inner fortitude and self-confidence, which made her self-reliant. “Not only has she herself advanced, but has carried forward the country and society to newer heights...Today the country is moving forward from the path of women development to women-led development,” he said.

The PM also dwelt on issues such as natural disasters and general safety, stating that the country was well-equipped to meet catastrophes like earthquakes and flood.