Kendrapada: Suresh Gopi, minister of state for petroleum and natural gas, on Wednesday told Rajya Sabha that oil and gas public sector units (PSUs) have spent Rs 22.12 crore on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects for environmental conservation in Odisha over the last five years.
Responding to a question by BJD MP Manas Ranjan Mangaraj, the minister gave a district-wise breakdown of the expenditure. Khurda district received the highest allocation of Rs 11.07 crore, followed by Cuttack at Rs 5.63 crore. Other significant allocations included Jagatsinghpur (Rs 1.06 crore), Balasore (Rs 1.05 crore) and Puri (Rs 80.84 lakh).
The remaining districts received smaller allocations — Sambalpur (Rs 49.20 lakh), Sundargarh (Rs 51.60 lakh), Angul (Rs 36.82 lakh), Kendrapada (Rs 21.24 lakh) and Keonjhar (Rs 15.53 lakh). Other districts collectively received Rs 63.97 lakh.
The minister added that the funds were utilized for various environmental initiatives, including tree plantation, water body restoration, solar street light installation, promotion of cleaner fuels, CNG-based crematoriums, garbage collection vehicles, wildlife protection, waste management and battery-operated vehicles.
“These projects aim to promote environmental sustainability across the state,” the minister said.