Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar
on Friday flayed the Centre for not clearing his government's
request to allow possible investors in the sugar sector to
produce ethanol directly from cane juice.
Due to the apathy of the Centre, possible investors
were dithering to invest in this sector, Kumar told the House.
The chief minister intervened in the reply during a
discussion on sugarcane department that was necessitated due
to a cut motion moved by Awadhesh Singh (Congress) and nine
others.
Kumar informed the House that Bihar Sugarcane (supply
and purchase regulation) Bill was duly amended and sent to the
Centre for its assent in April 2007 but was yet to be cleared.
If the bill pending before the Centre since
April 2007 was cleared at the earliest, Bihar would become a
ethanol hub and those willing to set up new sugar mills or
take up sick ones would set up their own power generating
units producing about 2000 mw, he said. Of this the companies
would supply 1400 mw to BSEB, which would go a long way in
solving the power problem of the state, Kumar told the House.
The entire Opposition staged a noisy walkout when
Kumar was making a statement over the status of sugar mills in
the state, terming Kumar's statement as "bundle of lies".
Kumar charged the main opposition RJD with being
instrumental in closing down of the mills and said that the
NDA government in consultation with the SBI CAPS, Kolkata had
launched a scheme to revive the sick mills.
Later the budgetary demand of sugarcane department
totalling over 49.43 crore was passed by vote in the absence
of the opposition.
Earlier the budgetary demand of industry department
totalling over Rs 52199 crore was also passed by vote. The
minister in-charge Brijendra Prasad Yadav said that the
state government had received investment proposals worth over
Rs 1.47 lakh crore mainly in agro-based units and power
sectors.
The State Industrial Promotion Board (SIPB) had
cleared about 294 invstmentment proposals through single
window system, he said.
Yadav also replied for the exice and prohibition
department as its minister Jamshed Ashraf had been sacked.
Replying to the budgetary department of the excise and
registration department totalling RS 95,15,61,000, he said the
two departments would earn a revenue of about Rs 2200 crore
during the current fiscal.
Denying the opposition charge that government had
opened wine outlets in every nook and corner of the state, he
said the government could not help if the number of alcohol
consumers were on the rise.
PTI
First Published: Friday, March 19, 2010, 22:15