New Delhi: The Ministry of Jal Shakti Wednesday launched a unified portal on the government’s ‘Gobardhan’ scheme, which aims to effectively manage cattle and biodegradable waste in rural areas across the country.
The Gobardhan scheme is implemented under the Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin-Phase 2, by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Jal Shakti ministry. It was launched in 2018.
The scheme also aims to augment income of farmers by converting biodegradable waste into compressed biogas (CBG). The initiative aims at attracting entrepreneurs for establishing community-based CBG plants in rural areas.
The new portal will give information related to the scheme and assistance provided towards it by other ministries such as petroleum, agriculture, animal husbandry and the MSME.
At the inaugural event Wednesday, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said the Gobardhan scheme will provide farmers an alternative income of at least Rs 1 lakh crore in the next five years.
“To provide farmers additional income through this scheme, the Ministry of Petroleum will provide guaranteed offtake from these CBG plants under public-private model at a minimum price, which will be revised every year. We aim to provide alternate income worth Rs 1 lakh crore to farmers in the next five years by converting rural waste into ethanol, biogas and biodiesel,” Pradhan said.
Inaugurating the portal, Secretary, Jal Shakti, Pankaj Kumar, said: “This will be the priority scheme of the ministry under its effort of taking India ahead toward Open Defecation Free Plus. The Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation will assist each district with technical know-how and financial support of Rs 50 lakh for achieving safe management of cattle and biodegradable waste in rural areas while converting it into income for farmers and preventing disease by maintaining sanitation.”
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‘650 entrepreneurs have shown interest in CBG plants’
Pradhan also said the new portal will give entrepreneurs information on finances related to establishment of CBG plant.
“This portal will provide information to entrepreneurs on finances related to the scheme CBG plant establishment, such as interest subvention by the agriculture ministry, slurry manure purchase by animal husbandry ministry, along with gas purchase by the petroleum ministry,” Pradhan added.
The minister also said the Reserve Bank of India has categorised financing for CBG plant under this scheme as a priority sector lending. The State Bank of India has been nominated to finance CBG plants.
He also said 650 entrepreneurs have already submitted letters of intent for establishing CBG plants. And two municipal corporations in Delhi have signed a contract with the petroleum ministry to provide 2,500 metric tonne worth of CBG.
Union Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries Giriraj Singh, who was also present at the event, said 14 crore cattle heads have been tagged with RFID (microchip with a unique 15-digit identification number) to keep an estimate of cattle manure output under the scheme.
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