15-year-old govt vehicles will be scrapped: Union minister Nitin Gadkari
Nagpur(PTI): Union minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday said all vehicles belonging to the Indian government that have completed 15 years will be scrapped, and a policy to that effect has been sent to states. He was speaking at the inauguration of the annual 'Agro-Vision' agriculture exhibition here.
"Yesterday, I signed a file under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that all the vehicles of the Indian government which have completed 15 years will be scrapped. I have sent this policy of the Indian government to all the states. They should adopt this policy at the state level," he said.
Addressing the gathering, Gadkari said two plants of the Indian Oil have almost started in Panipat, one of which will produce one lakh litre ethanol per day, while the other one will manufacture 150 tonnes bio-bitumen per day using rice straw.
This is a big change as Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and rice-producing parts of the country, where burning of rice straw causes pollution. Now, rice straw will be used to produce ethanol and bio bitumen, he said.
"We require 80 lakh tonnes of bio-bitumen in the country and mostly in the roadways department. Around 50 lakh tonnes of bitumen is manufactured in the country and we import about 25 lakh tonnes of it," he said.
"I am happy that when such projects start, our country will no longer need to import bitumen. Our roads in villages, districts, states and national highways would be made of bitumen using rice straw produced by farmers," he said.
Gadkari also talked about one more project by Indian Oil in Assam where bioethanol will be produced.
"Bamboos will be cultivated on wastelands, from which bioethanol will be produced. Our farmers will not only remain food providers, but they will be energy providers as well," Gadkari said.
Madhya Pradesh Chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who was chief guest at the event, appreciated Gadkari's efforts.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
