VIJAYAWADA: Even as the Centre and state government spends crores of rupees for the conservation of fossil fuel, officials seem to have no idea about the conservation status in Andhra Pradesh. The Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA) and fuel companies jointly organised Oil and Gas Conservation Awareness Campaign (SAKSHAM-17) here on Monday.
A senior official from the state government who inaugurated the campaign told Express he was unaware of the conservation status in the state. Though the government spends crores of rupees on conservation campaigns and research on new technologies to conserve fossil fuel, authorities seem blissfully unaware of the statistics on oil and gas conservation in the state.
“The state is adopting latest energy efficient technologies such as LED lights, green constructions etc. The demand for LPG supply has also increased over the past one year as citizens are increasingly becoming enviornmentellay aware. But it is mandatory to put a limit on the usage of resources for the benefit of future generations,” said G Ravi Babu, Director of Civil supplies department. HPCL-LPG South Central Zone general manager K Subramanian, says the state ranks 9th in petroleum consumption, using 5.6 percent of the total consumption across the country.
“The government wants to make use of the latest technology to conserve energy and protect the environment, and, as part of the drive, it is working to provide LPG to all households, thereby reducing the use of polluting fuels like kerosene, diesel and petrol,” he said.
“Over 50 per cent of the households in the country still use highly unclean solid fuels, resulting in 15 lakh deaths owing to respiratory disorders,” said G K K V Umashankar, coordinator for oil industry.