Clarify on rice husk status as bio-fuel: Karnal millers to government

Karnal, December 8

Raising their voice against the order of the Commission for Air Quality Management and Haryana State Pollution Control Board, rice millers and exporters of the district on Tuesday served an ultimatum of 24 hours to the government to clarify whether rice husk is a bio-fuel or not.

They said rice husk is used as fuel in most of the rice mills as its burning helps in managing the overwhelming volume of husk. It is also environment-friendly, they said. Under the new norms, the industries — running without CNG and PNG — will run for eight hours in a day from Monday to Friday and will remain closed on Saturday and Sunday. While handing over a memorandum to Additional DC Yogesh Kumar for the CM and the PM, the millers and exporters cited a study of Thailand University saying rice husk was more environment-friendly as compared to other fuels. “If government does not make it clear if it is a clean fuel, we will assume that the government agrees with our reports and we will restart our industries on bio-fuel round-the-clock instead of eight hours a day,” said Vijay Setia, ex- president of All-India Rice Exporters. — TNS

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