Diesel nahi ab khaadi se; diesel milega badi se (no more diesel from the Gulf; get diesel from our own field)” — that was Chief Minister Raman Singh’s slogan to promote bio-fuel in the state. He had also announced that he would use only pure bio-fuel in his official vehicle.

Many government agencies, NGOs and others joined the propaganda, and huge funds were spent on planting 40 crore saplings of Jatropha Curcus, locally known as ‘Ratanjyot’, on over 1.55 lakh hectares of barren or fallow land during the last three years.

Even before these plants began bearing fruit, Singh stopped using bio-fuel in his official car as he now travels in a bullet-proof vehicle which, officials say, requires petrol or diesel.

As of now, no data about actual survival of saplings and production of seeds is available. Many farmers, who planted Jatropha, are in a fix as trees did not bear fruit at many places.

In tribal Kanker and Rajnandgaon districts, a large number of children fell ill after consuming fruits of Jatropha last year, leading to protests. However, the authorities called these ‘isolated incidents’ but imposed a ban on planting of Ratanjyot saplings near schools.

Problems persisted even at the places where Jatropha plants bore fruits. Various departments, panchayat bodies and other agencies which planted bio-fuel plants on government land in almost all the districts are still waiting for guidelines regarding collection and sale of Jatropha seeds and extraction of bio-fuel from it.

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