Clean energy programme launched in tea estate

STAFF CORRESPONDENT

DIBRUGARH, Feb 10: Oil India Limited (OIL), under its CSR initiative, iugurated project “OIL URJA”, a clean energy programme with a focus on reducing carbon emissions by distributing Fuel Efficient Chullahs in Tea Gardens of OIL’s operatiol areas.

The project will benefit 3000 household of six tea garden villages of upper Assam. The programme was formally iugurated on today at Balijan Tea Estate, Panitola, in Dibrugarh district.  The programme was attended by the garden officials and stakeholders of the tea community, officials from OIL, Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE) and ICCO, Guwahati.

OIL has launched this one-year program with another 8 months of follow-up & monitoring at a total project cost of Rs. 1, 34, 72,000 with the objective of conservation of firewood and other biomass; removal of smoke from kitchen, check on deforestation and environmental up gradation; reduction in the drudgery of women and girl children from cooking in smoky kitchen; reduction of health hazards and in cooking time and provides employment opportunities to rural people.

The iuguration ceremony was graced by Circle Officer of Chabua, Dipak Bhutan. Director II(D), Manoj Kumar Das,  G.M Technical Audit, Satyendra  rain  Singh , GM-Technical Audit, OIL;  Rakesh Kumar Singh ,DGM -Public affairs, OIL, Dilip Kumar Bhuyan,  Head-CIE-IIE, Dr Sripar B Baruah besides senior officers from OIL and IIE.

IIE as an implementing agency for the programme informed that the target is to cover 1000 household in every 4 months and the project will not only focus on supply & installation of fuel efficient chullah in identified tea garden households but also bring sustaibility and entrepreneurship development from amongst the young community members.

During the iuguration, Director, IIE, Manoj Das, mentioned that IIE has always taken initiative in extending CSR programme benefit to all states of NER through its various projects and OIL CSR is one such important project.

This effort towards providing free chullah and chimney shall be highly beneficial to the tea garden community and shall bring a positive change in their lives.

On behalf of OIL Magement, DGM -Public Affairs, OIL, Dilip Kumar Bhuyan spoke about the project and said that this is the first clean energy program taken up by the company as a CSR activity.

Head, CIE, IIE, Dr Sripar B Baruah, in her speech stated that the project shall make a big impact amongst the tea community members, especially the women folk, in terms of prevention of health hazards due to carbon emission and improve the quality of life of the beneficiaries.

Circle Officer Bhutan mentioned about this Clean Energy programme being a great and innovative and appreciated both OIL and IIE for working together towards changing lives of the people through their CSR initiative, especially Project Urja. He mentioned that more organization should come forward for such activities.