The Jal Shakti Ministry launched a unified portal on the 'Gobardhan' scheme on February 3, 2021. The scheme aims to support villages in effectively managing their cattle and biodegradable waste.
The Gobardhan scheme is expected to help enhance farmers' income by converting biodegradable waste into compressed biogas (CBG).
The scheme is being pursued as a priority programme under the Swachch Bharat Mission Grameen-Phase 2 by the Department of Drinking Water and Sanitation under the Jal Shakti ministry. It was launched in 2018.
Objective
According to Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the new unified portal on the scheme will ensure transparency and social accountability.
Key Highlights
•The new portal will provide information related to the scheme and assistance provided towards it by other ministries such as petroleum, agriculture, animal husbandry and the MSME.
•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.
•The Minister further said that the Petroleum Ministry will provide guaranteed offtake from these CBG plants under public-private model at a minimum price to provide farmers additional income through the scheme. The minimum price will be revised every year.
•He added saying that the main aim is 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.
•He also said the new portal will give entrepreneurs information on finances related to the establishment of CBG plant such as interest subvention by the agriculture ministry, slurry manure purchase by animal husbandry ministry, along gas purchase by the petroleum ministry.
•The Reserve Bank of India has categorised financing for the CBG plant under this scheme as a priority sector lending. The State Bank of India has been nominated to finance CBG plants.
•Around 650 entrepreneurs have already submitted letters of intent for establishing CBG plants and two municipal corporations have signed a contract with the petroleum ministry to provide 2,500 metric tonnes worth of CBG.
Jal Shakti Secretary Pankaj Kumar said that 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 be assisting 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.
Union Animal Husbandry, Dairy and Fisheries Minister 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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