From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Congress on Friday asked Prime Minister Modi to lay out his plans for ensuring electricity supply as the people are suffering power cut of 6 to 10 hours in as many as 16 states and the situation will still worsen in the month of May just two days away.
He said many states have imposed power cuts because 72,074 Megawatt capacity power stations are not operating because of the coal scarcity. The daily coal demand is 22 lakh tonnes, but supplies from the Centre-controlled coal mines are limited to 16 lakh tonnes, he said and yet the PM blames states for the coal shortage as their responsibility. Ask any question and Modi wriggles out saying it is the states’ responsibility, he said.
“Our question is why many coal-based power stations are not operating. Out of 173 power plants in the country, 106 are having 25% or even less coal stock they are mandatorily required to maintain,” Congress spokesman Prof. Gourav Vallabh told a Press conference here.
He said the total demand of power in the month of may will be 2.2lakh megawatts and so Modi should reveal his government’s plan to supply this much power in this month. He demanded that the artificial power crisis created due to mismanagement of coal should be immediately resolved.
Gourav said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has exposed the Prime Minister’s appeal to the states to reduce taxes on petrol and diesel at a time when they do not have funds to run the governments. She admitted that Rs 78,704 crore of GST due are pending from the Centre to the states, he pointed out.
