Wednesday, 25 January 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Chief secretary SS Sandhu has directed officials to facilitate research on different uses of pirul (dry pine needles) for its proper disposal needed to check forest fires. He said this while chairing a meeting on pirul disposal and its different uses. Operators of some plants set up to generate electricity using pirul were also present in the meeting.
Sandhu said that possibilities for making briquettes from pirul and using these as fuel should be checked. As an experiment, such briquettes can be used as fuel to cook midday meals in schools when cooking gas is not available. This will help in utilisation of the dry pine needles while also provide a market to those involved in this activity. Sandhu also directed officials to check what the other States are doing regarding the dry pine needles.
He further said that a government order should be issued soon to bring pirul out of the category of forest produce which will make its collection convenient. The chief secretary further said that he will himself visit plants set up to produce electricity using pine needle briquettes as fuel. He also directed officials to consider improvements and policy changes needed to make power generation using pirul practical. Later, he held a meeting for setting up solar plants in all government offices. He directed the officials to take action soon for setting up solar plants on the roofs of all government buildings and government school buildings. Solar energy is good for the environment and capable of drastically reducing expenditure on electricity, he said.
