Punjab CM’s false claim on bio-gas plant for paddy stubble exposed

Chandigarh: Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has announced that he will inaugurate a stubble-based Bio-CNG plant today at Bhutal Kalan village in Sangrur district, but the truth is that the plant has been operating for more than a year now.

The Verbio Vereinigte BioEnergie Germany’s affiliate Verbio India Ltd’s Bio-CNG plant was commissioned (see video) during the Congress regime, having a 33 TPD capacity. It has been utilising stubble produced in the fields of about 100 villages in and around Sangrur district.

The Chief Minister is clearly trying to take credit, for something he has not done, to gain political mileage on the issue.

CM Mann says in a video speech released on Monday that he will inaugurate a new plant on Tuesday in Bhutal Kalan near Lehragaga that will solve the problem of pollution due to stubble burning.

Indianarrative.com sought a response from Navneet Wadhwa, media in-charge of CM’s office on the issue. He sent an Invest Punjab Tweet dated September 15, 2022, which said, “CM Bhagwant Mann and a delegation of senior officials…met with Mr. Claus Sauter, founder, and CEO of Verbio… during their visit to Berlin, Germany and discussed Verbio’s future expansion plans in the state.”

Below the same Tweet Invest Punjab admits, “Verbio India recently commissioned a Bio-CNG project of 33 TPD capacity in Punjab which is a great way of solving the stubble burning problem…”

It is clear from the Punjab government’s own Tweet that the plant had been “commissioned” earlier, thus proving that the Chief Minister is going to inaugurate today a plant that is already operation from over a year.

Navneet Wadhwa did not reply to a query sent by this reporter that the Invest Punjab Tweet sent by him (Wadhwa) proves that the Chief Minister is trying to take credit for something which his government did not do.

Apart from solving the pollution problem, the conversion of paddy stubble into bio-fuel also creates an additional source of income for the farmers who are a strong vote-bank.

Manik Goyal, a Mansa-based RTI activist, who has been tracking the issue closely, said, “It was not the first time that the AAP government in Punjab has told a lie. There were many more instances when the party and its government made false claims on different issues.”