Part of a cluster — open full story hub

Summary
The government's ethanol blending policy has been criticized for not following a planned policy pathway, leading to consumer complaints about loss of mileage and choking of fuel pumps. The policy goals are unclear, with different voices from the government on different ministries. The policy is being questioned for its effectiveness in helping the environment, saving foreign exchange, and helping farmers.
“The arrogance of this government is such that they are declaring all these consumers who are not consulted in the first place and when they are airing their grievances through social media, they are being accused of working for this lobby or that lobby or being guided by vested interest, political vested interest, etc.”From the report
all the vehicles before 2023 are the ones who are complaining about loss of mileage. Many are complaining on social media about choking of fuel pumps, etc. Mechanics are talking about it. Workshops are talking about it. The arrogance of this government is such that they are declaring all these consumers who are not consulted in the first place and when they are airing their grievances through social media, they are being accused of working for this lobby or that lobby or being guided by vested interest, political vested interest, etc. I wanted to tell us how planned policy pathway was not followed by this government. If they had indeed followed everything that Niti Aayog had said and the two main objectives of consumer protection and consumer basically meeting the needs of the consumer. So even if that had been followed, it would not have been a policy failure as such. Would you agree with that? Absolutely. Totally. You know, also the policy goals are not clear. I mean, we are hearing different voices from the government on different ministries. One is saying that it is going to help you tide over the foreign exchange crisis and the supply side due to the West Asia Another is saying that it is good we want to help the farmers The third policy goal which is being initiated is good for the environment from the climate change perspective So these are different goalposts, you know, the policy goals which are being talked about. So we are not clear why this policy has been formed. Is it for the environment, then it has to be a part of a larger energy transition? Why only the transport sector? What about different sectors. So if it is purely climate change and environment, climate change, then you need a it should be part of a bigger picture, no energy transition, your phase or coal, we have to bring in different kind of EVs part of it's all that is a bigger, you know, transition. If it is for environment, then are we really helping the environment? Because if you look at the footprint of production, you know, then the ecological footprint of biofuel is it a good enough reason for you to replace you know the when use it in place of petrol has the has there been any impact on the pollution is there any research which shows the tail and pollutions are different from what comes out of the vehicles is there any impact on that and also the ecological footprint what are the crops you are produced being used is there a water use involved, all that. So if environment is the goal, then have we looked at all that? And if the foreign exchange saving is a goal, then are we able to save that?