Calling upon the people of Nagaland to use the fuel efficiently, the Nagaland chief minister, TR Zeliang, has suggested the people to adopt certain better practices in their way of lives by inculcating various habits such as walking, cycling, sharing vehicle, use of public transport and avoiding using of motor vehicles unnecessarily.
In his message on the month-long campaign on Oil Conservation, being organised throughout the country by the Petroleum Conservation Research Association under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, along with Public Sector Oil and Gas companies to create awareness on the need to conserve oil and natural gas, the chief minister said the demand for petroleum products throughout the country was still growing though measures were being adopted to increase usage of new and renewable energy resources.He pointed out that India has a huge deficit in crude oil production as the country import nearly 80% of its crude oil requirement at a whooping cost to the nation’s exchequer.
“Our country’s import bill is high and always dependent on the rate of global crude oil prices, and it has become imperative for the country to devise ways and means of reducing dependence on imported energy,” Zeliang said.
The chief minister, however, expressed happiness at the various plans and strategies formulated by the Government of India to enhance availability of proprietary oil and gas both from within and outside the country. He mentioned that Entanol Blended Petrol and Jathropa based Bio-Diesel were being promoted to have an impact on consumption of fossil fuels. Zeliang said that alongside those initiatives, which he said were yielding substantial benefits, the energy consumption efforts needed to be initiated to make the whole country energy efficient. Meanwhile, the chief minister congratulated the entire oil industry for organising the conservative awareness month and wished them all the very best in their endeavours.
On January 16, 2017, the Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the month long awareness drive on fuel conservation Saksham 2017 in New Delhi. Saksham – 2017 is aimed to create awareness amongst masses towards judicious utilization and conservation of petroleum products along with use of energy efficient appliances and switching to cleaner fuels.