Pilot Project: ‘Smokeless stoves to be launched in five districts’

kolkata: The West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) is proceeding with experimentation of introducing smokeless ‘chulha’ (stove) and solar induction plates in five districts, state Environment minister Manas Ranjan Bhunia said on Tuesday.

“Delhi IIT will be helping us. If successful, will place this in front of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,” Bhunia said. This will be introduced as a pilot project in five districts including Sunderban, Murshidabad, Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia.

The WBPCB chairman Kalyan Rudra said that IIT Delhi has asked them to also keep a check on the air quality before and after the introduction of the project on an experimental basis at these five districts.“We have identified academic institutions in each of these districts and asked them to adopt a village. These institutions will conduct a preliminary survey and tell us how many families in a particular village use solid fuel. They will give us the list and we will reach out to those families,” Rudra elaborated.

Taking a dig at the Centre’s Ujjwala scheme, Bhunia said that the CM is giving people free rice in ration but people are having to pay double the amount for gas. Many have stopped using it and gone back to using solid fuel and on that perspective, the state pollution control board has come up with a plan to give them smokeless stoves and solar induction plates.The state pollution control board chairman Rudra said that the World Bank is assisting the project. They have said that 70 per cent of the required funding will be given as loan while the state will have to contribute 30 per cent. He said that a meeting will soon be held in which further clarity on the financial model of the project will be given.Meanwhile, the minister, during the press meeting also announced that the department will start planting plants from Jhargram to Birbhum along the inter-state border from June for mitigating fine air-borne pollutants from crossing over to West Bengal from states like Jharkhand, especially during winter.

The trees that will be planted include karabi, akondo, bakul, chhatim, nim, palash to name a few. According to a study by the State Pollution Control Board in association with IIT Delhi, 53 per cent of the state’s pollution is caused by transboundary pollution.