Nitish asks Centre to amend ethanol production law

"The recent amendment of the Sugarcane Control Order, 1966 effected by the UPA government at the Centre will lead to the state government losing investment proposals worth over Rs 20,000 crore for production of ethanol," Kumar told reporters here today.     

Kumar said he had written a letter to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar seeking review of the amendment as the state received about 35 proposals to set up sugarcane juice based ethanol manufacturing units, along with greenfield sugar based complexes for manufacture of sugar.     

"The state government is promoting investments by entrepreneurs in setting up plants which will produce ethanol and other products directly from sugarcane juice without producing sugar," the chief minister said.     

He said the amendment which jeopardized the efforts taken by the state government to establish Bihar as an ethanol hub, was contrary to the ethanol blending programme of the country about which the prime minister had himself spoken of in a letter of him in December.     

Kumar said the PM in his letter had also stressed the merit and urgency of the ethanol blending programme and also mentioned that India being one of the largest producers of sugarcane needed to be developed as the ethanol producing hub of the world.