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'Eight years of big talk...': Rahul Gandhi's jab at PM over coal, power crisis
On Tuesday union home minister Amit Shah met power minister RK Singh, coal minister Pralhad Joshi and railway minister Ashwini Vaishnav to discuss the coal and power situation.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi took a pot-shot at prime minister Narendra Modi Wednesday over fears of a power crisis because of a shortage of coal. Gandhi alleged there were only eight days of coal stock left in India - a claim that raises memories of October last year, when coal shortage led to a huge electricity supply deficit primarily in Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Jharkhand, and Rajasthan.
Rahul Gandhi also threw in a reference to 'bulldozers' - a jab over BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh using heavy machinery to destroy homes of riot accused and came hours before the Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt to the demolition drive in Delhi's Jahangirpuri area.
"Eight years of big talk has resulted in India having only eight days of coal stocks... Modi ji, stagflation is looming. Power cuts will crush small industries, leading to more job losses. Switch off the bulldozers of hate and switch on the power plants!" Gandhi tweeted.
Gandhi posted an infographic of two news headlines - one from June 2020 that read 'Coal sector taken out of decades of lockdown': PM announces 'big step', and another from Tuesday that read 'India stares at power outage as coal stocks at power plants hit a low'.
The 2020 headline was a reference to the prime minister's announcement then that 41 coal mines would be auctioned off to make India self-reliant in energy by reducing imports.
On Tuesday union home minister Amit Shah met power minister RK Singh and coal minister Pralhad Joshi to discuss the coal and power situation.
READ: Amit Shah meets RK Singh, Pralhad Joshi on coal, power issues
A similar meeting was held in October last year too.
There are reports of depleting coal inventory of domestic thermal power plants in 12 states, including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Jharkhand, and Haryana. These face power cuts ranging from three to 8.7 per cent of total demand, news agency PTI reported.
In the first fortnight of April, domestic demand hit a 38-year high for the month. The shortfall was 1.4 per cent. It was 1.1 per cent in October 2021.
Power minister RK Singh has blamed the steep rise in prices of imported coal on the Russia-Ukraine war. Last week Singh met Gujarat government officials, after which sources said the centre is planning to increase the use of imported coal for power generation, including for blending purposes.
“At the meeting, it was observed that the coal stocks at the power plant end were only 36 per cent of the normative requirement which would be sufficient for only about 11 days," said a Gujarat government official aware of the matter.
With input from PTI
