New Delhi, April 20 (IANS) The Centre on Monday decided to convert surplus rice stocks into ethanol which will be used in making alcohol-based hand-sanitisers and for blending in petrol.

The National Biofuel Coordination Committee (NBCC) under the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas approved the decision.

This move will enable the conversion of surplus rice available with Food Corporation of India (FCI) into to ethanol.

As per the National Policy on Biofuels, whenever there is a projected over supply of food grains as anticipated by the Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare during an agriculture crop year, the policy will allow conversion of these surplus quantities of food grains to ethanol.

--IANS rv/sn/vd