The special mass awareness drive for conservation of petroleum products named as Sanrakshan Kshamta Mahotsav, in short ‘Saksham’ was formally launched in true spirit for the state of Assam on Monday at Guwahati. Chandra Mohan Patowary, minister for Transport, Industry & Commerce, Act East Policy Affairs, Skill Development, Welfare of Minorities, government of Assam participated as chief guest in the inaugural function at Assam Engineering Institute Playground at Chandmari in Guwahati. Though Saksham 2022 was originally planned from January 15 to February 14, due to the third wave of Covid-19, the same has been rescheduled to April 11 to 30.
G Ramesh, state level coordinator for the Oil Industry and executive director & state head, IOCL, welcomed the audience and reiterated the relevance of petroleum conservation during his speech. He also outlined the activities being conducted as part of Saksham 2022 all across the state. During the inaugural function, ‘Saksham Pledge’ was taken in Assamese, Hindi and English language respectively. Messages of Hardeep Singh Puri, Union minister and Rameswar Teli, minister of state for Petroleum & Natural Gas, government of India were read out on the occasion.
While delivering his inaugural address, Chandra Mohan Patowary highlighted the high dependence on imports to meet the crude oil requirement of the country with the backdrop of ever-increasing energy demand. He also emphasised on the fact that along with economic growth, there would be consequent rise in the use of petroleum products and therefore, serious efforts should be made to conserve these fossil fuels and to increase the dependence on renewable sources of energy. The minister also highlighted the initiatives taken by the Assam government to promote e-vehicles in Assam and talked about developing more projects for renewable energy sources. While thanking the SLC for inviting him to the inaugural function, he appealed to all the concerned authorities to actively participate in the programs under Saksham 2022 and transform this conservation campaign into a way of life.
There will be various activities conducted during Saksham 2022 for all the mass segments like training programs, technical seminars, workshops, group talks, quiz competitions, cyclothon, walkathon, e-vehicle rally, LPG panchayat, fuel efficient cooking competitions, fuel efficient driving contest, etc.
