Press release - September 10, 2010
With announcement of election dates in Bihar, Greenpeace today restated its demand to political parties to include decentralised renewable energy (DRE) in their election manifestos and push for a new policy and law on RE.
“Greenpeace is going to monitor the entire manifesto process of all political parties and hope that their commitment to promote RE will find prominent place in each of their manifestos. It is evident that, for the development of both the people and of the state of Bihar, finding solutions to the energy crisis is going to be absolutely necessary. No party can afford to ignore the role RE can play in delivering this,” said Ramapati Kumar of Greenpeace India.
Bihar is reeling under a power crisis and there is a huge electricity deficit across the state. Greenpeace feels that Bihar can fulfil its energy needs in an equitable and sustainable manner by investing in DRE.
At the end of August, Greenpeace released a people’s manifesto in the presence of senior representatives from all political parties, to highlight the energy needs of the state and the tremendous scope of DRE. Politicians across party lines have acknowledged renewable energy as a solution to Bihar’s energy requirements and agreed to include decentralised renewable energy in their election manifestos.
A Greenpeace delegation has also met with leaders and key political representatives, namely Shyam Rajak of Janata Dal (United), Rambachan Rai of Rashtriya Janata Dal, Kiran Ghai of Bharatiya Janata Party, L P Shahi of Congress, Ramchandra Paswan of Lok Janashakti Party and representatives of Communist Party of India Marxist. All the parties have promised to include renewable energy as a key issue in their manifestos. They have also agreed to push for a new law and policy on RE in Bihar.
“It’s now time for them to deliver on their public statements and we intend to monitor this carefully,” warned Mr Kumar as parties begin to put the final touches to their manifestos.