Bengaluru: Union minister Pralhad Joshi Tuesday offered to send an oil marketing company (OMC) officer for joint testing of fuel samples with Karnataka govt officials, challenging state minister Rizwan Arshad to oversee the exercise.
The offer came amid an escalating row over ethanol blending in petrol, with chief minister DK Shivakumar questioning the Centre’s accountability and alleging that excessive blending was affecting vehicle performance.
“Let Rizwan Arshad sit with our officers and their officers and be the judge,” Joshi said, accusing Congress of raising the issue to appease Rahul Gandhi. Defending ethanol blending, Joshi said the policy was intended to benefit farmers and reduce dependence on imported crude. To further justify his point that there was no business sense in mixing more than the permissible limit of ethanol in petrol, Joshi said: “The base price of petrol is Rs 53 [per litre], while the cost of ethanol is between Rs 57 and Rs 71, if we use maize-based ethanol.“ Karnataka should examine the test results already shared by the Centre and make the remaining details public, Joshi said.
He claimed the party had shifted its focus to ethanol after failing to gain public support over its protests on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and EVMs.
Sarcastically suggesting that Joshi take over the portfolio, he said Karnataka was not opposed to ethanol blending but wanted to ensure consumers were not cheated. Karnataka is not against ethanol blending, but it is against people being cheated,” Arshad said, while acknowledging the benefits of increased ethanol use for sugar factories. Reacting to these observations, Arshad hit back, saying that Joshi did not hold the petroleum portfolio and had responded on behalf of Union petroleum minister Hardeep Singh Puri. “Why is the Union govt attempting to turn a public interest issue into a farmer-versus-people debate?