On Sunday, September 14, Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that sugar industry has survived due to the arrival of Ethanol and further expressed the need for new technologies in Farming. The minister said: “ We import fossil fuels worth rs. 22 crore due to ethanol. The sugarcane cultivators and sugar mill operators have survived because if the arrival of ethanol. Not only this, he also revealed that sugar is in surplus in India, and sugar mills have somehow managed to survive due to ethanol.
Apart from Sugar Industry survival, Gadkari talks about farmer suicides, Too
Addressing an event of Naam Foundation in Pune, the minister talks about farmer suicides in vidarbha and Marathwada districts of Maharashtra as these suicides were caused by water scarcity in these regions
Apparently, he asserted that Water was the major reason behind the suicides of farmers in the Vidarbha and Marathwada regions. If water were available in abundance, the farmers would not have to take the extreme step”.
According to sources, the minister praised the foundation for its work in water conservation and towards the welfare of the children of farmers who had committed suicide.
The Minister is accused of Conflict of Interest
On the contrary, the opposition party Congress accused him of a conflict of interest, claiming he has been aggressively lobbying for ethanol production while his two sons are involved in firms that produce ethanol and have benefited from government policy.
While dismissing the allegations, the BJP stated that the Congress has become like the Aam Aadmi Party, which used to make claims about having documentary evidence of wrongdoings in its pocket, but would have nothing in reality