Pralhad Joshi defends E20, questions Karnataka tests

Bengaluru, Nov 10 (UNI) union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Tuesday mounted a fresh offensive against the Congress government in Karnataka over the ethanol blending controversy, challenging the credibility of its petrol-testing exercise and accusing it of building a political narrative around what he described as unsubstantiated claims. Seeking to turn the spotlight on the methodology rather than the reported ethanol readings, Joshi questioned the accreditation of laboratories used by the state government, the sampling procedure and the absence of oil company representatives during testing, while asserting that tests conducted by oil marketing companies (OMCs) had established compliance with prescribed standards.…