Bengaluru, Nov 12 (IANS) Karnataka Leader of the Opposition R. Ashoka said on Thursday that when people began condemning the mistakes of the Congress government, the ethanol controversy was raised to divert the issue and distract the public mind.
Speaking at a press conference, he said misinformation is being spread about blending ethanol with petrol. A problem that does not exist in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and elsewhere has been created here. The government is unable even to give Rs 5,000 drought relief to farmers. It first announced Rs 2,500 and then gave only Rs 1,500 in Yadgir.
Even then, the Revenue Minister justified it by saying it happened by mistake. Such errors continue even when IAS officers are present. Recently, an IAS officer in Hassan posted on social media that “if the lion sleeps, dogs will bark.” Such officers have lost the competence to provide relief, he said.
Under the Kisan Samman scheme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is giving Rs 6,000 directly to the bank accounts of farmers across the country. But in the state, there is no system to deliver relief directly to farmers. Minister Krishna Byre Gowda has said that per capita income has increased. But he has not disclosed how much debt has been incurred per person. All these issues have been diverted by raising the ethanol matter, he said.
Vehicle manufacturing companies have not complained that their engines are getting damaged, nor have people gone to court. Only Congress is complaining about this. Only Minister Rizwan Arshad and Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar were raising complaints, he noted.
Belagavi Congress leaders had demanded that ethanol be purchased. Now Bengaluru Congress leaders are saying ethanol is not needed. More than 80 countries are blending ethanol. When I was Transport Minister, I appealed to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh regarding ethanol use, but he did not give permission. At that time, the petroleum lobby was active. Countries like America, Brazil and Vietnam are using ethanol to help farmers, he said.
From 2014-15 till May 2026, ethanol blending has resulted in more than Rs 1.90 lakh crore foreign exchange savings. Consumption of more than 310 lakh tonnes of crude oil has reduced, and about 930 lakh metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions have been reduced. Farmers have received more than Rs 1.60 lakh crore in additional income, he said.
Vehicle mileage has reduced more due to potholes on roads than due to ethanol. BMTC buses that used to run at 18 km per hour have now dropped to 11 km per hour. Out of 63 samples, only 11 samples were shown. The test results of the remaining samples should also have been shown. Were the samples collected from Congress-owned petrol bunks? Which bunks? That has not been disclosed, he said.
The Central Government has given guidelines on where and how testing should be done. Ignoring that, testing has been done somewhere else. As per Section 8/2 of the law brought by the UPA in 2005, six samples should be collected and given to the company and the owner. Information should be given to the owner within five days. The government has not followed any such process, he said.
Congress leaders who go to the Central Government for everything should have met Central ministers and held discussions on ethanol as well. This should be tested impartially and information given to the people, rather than creating panic among them. Otherwise, it will be like extracting potatoes from gold, as Rahul Gandhi says — getting results from tests, he remarked sarcastically.
If petrol is Rs 53 per litre, ethanol is priced at Rs 56.70. Because the rate is higher, companies do not make excessive profits from this. From ethanol alone, the Congress government received Rs 10,308 crore in income in 2025-26.
While the Central Government gets Rs 12 per litre from petrol, the state government gets Rs 24-25. That means the Congress, which receives higher revenue, is now making accusations about the same thing. Raids were conducted on 805 petrol bunks.
But weighing and measuring is the responsibility of the state government. Therefore, this is entirely the state government’s responsibility. Then they should have disclosed how many people action has been taken against, he said.
–IANS
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