Gobardhan Yojna' to be launched from Karnal on Apr 30

Gobardhan Yojna, a central government scheme for managing and converting cattle dung and solid waste into manure and biogas, will be launched nationally from Haryana's Karnal on April 30, an official said today.

Gobar is an acronym for Galvanising Organic Bio Agro Resources. Through the scheme, the government aims to ensure cleanliness in villages and generate energy by converting cattle dung and solid agricultural waste into compost and biogas.

The scheme was announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in his budget speech this year. The government aims to cover nearly 700 districts under the scheme in this financial year.

A few European countries and China have managed to produced biogas on a large-scale by effectively utilising cattle dung, the official said.

"With the same concept, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had spoken about galvanising organic bio-agro resources in the country and converting waste to energy," he said.

"Gram panchayat has a key role in this scheme under which bio-gas plants from cattle dung could be set up at individual or community level and also at the level of Self Help Groups and NGOs like Gaushalas," he said.

Assistance of experts would be sought for setting up the plants. The central and state governments would provide funds in the ratio of 60:40, which would depend upon the number of households in villages.

Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation, Uma Bharti, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, experts and farmers would participate in the launch programme on April 30.