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Coal min blames MVA for power trips in Maha, shortage
PUNE With Maharashtra facing shortage of coal, Raosaheb Patil Danve, union minister of state for railways, coal and mines, has criticised the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government for lack of advanced planning of coal storage, which is leading to electricity shortage in the state
PUNE With Maharashtra facing shortage of coal, Raosaheb Patil Danve, union minister of state for railways, coal and mines, has criticised the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government for lack of advanced planning of coal storage, which is leading to electricity shortage in the state. Now, the state is staring at compulsory power cuts as demand is higher than supply.
Danve who was in Jalna on Tuesday said, “The MVA government has no coal storage, and should purchase it from Madhya Pradesh or Gujarat, or wherever there is surplus coal and solve the electricity shortage crisis.”
Maharashtra is facing severe crises and has coal that will generate power for only 17 days. The state has a deficit of 3,000 MW . This shortage has taken the state on the brink of load shedding.
“Being the minister of coal, I say that the central government has coal available, but the MVA has made no provision for storage, and now complain that they do not have coal,” added Danve.
According to Danve, buying coal will not put any load on the state government’s budget as they should focus on providing basic amenities to people instead of making announcements of providing free residence to Members of Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the state. “Government has collected so much money from GST, and they should use it to buy coal. Providing electricity to people is the responsibility of the state government and not of the centre. I urge them to not do load shedding, as it will affect farmers and industrialists,” added Danve.
Danve said that 80 per cent of the coal is generated within the country, while 20 per cent is imported from the other countries. “Whoever needs coal, they should at least have a stock of 15 days with electricity companies. It is the responsibility of the state government to provide electricity to farmers, industrialists and residents of the state,” added Danve.
“The MVA is aware that citizens consume more electricity in the summer by using air conditioners and coolers. They should have made arrangements for storing coal earlier,” said Danve.
No severe load shedding in Pune
Nitin Raut, state energy minister said, “Load shedding will be done in areas where power theft is high. During Babasaheb Ambedkar Jayanti and in the month of Ramzan, we will try to avoid load shedding. We are appealing to people to save electricity every day from 6 am to 10 am and from 6 pm to 10 pm.”
Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) which supplies electricity to more than 2.8 crore customers in Maharashtra, has announced load shedding in some parts of the state from Tuesday.
“The load shedding is taking place due to an unexpected increase in the demand for electricity as compared to the supply due to shortage of domestic coal, and the state is short of 2,500 to 3,000 MW to meet the growing demand,” said MSEDCL spokesperson.
Some parts of Vidarbha, Marathwada and Khandesh will be affected by load shedding while places like Pune will not face severe load shedding, said the spokesperson.
“In some urban areas (like Pune), even if we have power outages, we plan to limit it to two hours,” said MSEDCL spokesperson.
