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‘No shortage of coal? But power plants are shutting’: Baghel counters Centre
The latest report from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) also showed that 25 such power plants had coal stocks for less than seven days as on October 3.
Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel on Monday took a dig at the Centre for claiming there is no shortage of coal supply in the country.
"The Centre claims that there is no shortage of coal but power plants are shutting down... why is it making false claims, coal import has also stopped... this will affect power supply... what is the Centre doing?" Bhupesh Baghel was quoted saying by news agency ANI.
“As far as Chhattisgarh is concerned, I have met with SECL, Power, and Railway officers over the supply of coal. They have assured me that there won't be any shortage of coal supply,” the Chhattisgarh chief minister added.
The Chhattisgarh government said South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) will ensure the supply of 29,500 metric tonnes of coal per day for thermal power plants in the state.
SECL CMD Ambika Prasad Panda gave consent for the supply following a request by Baghel, a government public relations official told news agency PTI.
Union minister for home affairs Amit Shah held a meeting with Union power minister RK Singh and Union coal minister Pralhad Joshi earlier in the day to discuss the power crisis, people familiar with the development said.
The meeting took place even as RK Singh on Sunday criticised the Gas Authority of India Ltd and Tata Power for sending “baseless SMSs” to customers and creating panic about a power crisis, warning that such acts will be treated as instances of “irresponsible behaviour”.
The CEO of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited Ganesh Srinivasan warned on Saturday that the national capital might witness intermittent and rotational load shedding in the coming days as coal-based power stations are left with coal stocks that will last one-two days.
The warnings came after the Central Electricity Authority released a report claiming that of the 135 power plants it monitors across the country, 64 non-pithead power plants (plants located 1,500km away from coal mines) are left with coal stocks for less than four days of supply.
Delhi’s power minister Satyendar Jain had warned residents of an acute coal shortage in thermal power plants across the country and cautioned that the national capital had enough coal stocks to last one more day.
"There is an acute shortage of coal in coal-fired power plants across the country. There is only one day's stock left in the plants from which Delhi gets electricity, there is no coal at all," Jain told reporters on Saturday.
However, Union minister RK Singh refuted these claims insisting that the demand for coal is actually a sign of the economy recovering after the brutal second wave brought things to a standstill.
Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday over on the "power crisis"and said that he is "personally keeping a close watch over the situation.
Meanwhile, a Tata Power spokesperson said that they have stopped generation in Mundra as the high cost of imported coal is “making it impossible to supply under present PPA terms”.
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Meanwhile, Karnataka's leader of opposition Siddaramaiah remarked on shortage of coal for power plants in the state earlier on Monday and said, “we have to first understand if the scarcity of coal is artificially created or not. Karnataka had never faced power crisis till now — we had excess production compared to demand.”
"As our thermal plants are closed, the requirement of coal is not very high. I condemn if this is an attempt to weaken government owned production plants and privatise them," Siddaramaiah said.
Earlier in the day, Kerala government's minister for power and electricity K Krishnankutty said the state government will decide on imposing loadshedding after October 19 while raising alarm that Kerala is facing a shortage of 100MW currently.
