Ethanol blend row: Minister stands firm on claim, demands independent fuel testing

Bengaluru Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Rizwan Arshad on Monday said that he stands by the test reports on ethanol blending in petrol that were released by him on November 6. Addressing the media on Monday, Mr.

Arshad said, “We stand by our test reports as the tests were done as per the prescribed procedure in laboratories recognised by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL), which is a constituent board of the Quality Council of India (QCI).” Failed to answer He added, “As an elected government, I was expecting an official response from the Union government, whereas they have made the oil companies respond to us. I have examined their statements on our E20 findings.

The OMCs’ release is more about technicalities, but they have failed to answer how much ethanol is in the petrol at our pumps.” The Minister had on November 6 released the test reports of 63 petrol samples collected from petrol bunks across Karnataka.