Modi govt responsible for power crisis; states can’t be blamed all the time: Congress

The Congress has said that the PM Narendra Modi-led Central government was squarely to blame for the power crisis in the country.

Addressing a press conference in the national Capital on Friday, party spokesperson Prof Gourav Vallabh said that the power crisis was due to inadequate coal at thermal power stations although coal mines had enough stock, but the Centre was unable to transport the same.

He also slammed the Centre’s tendency to lay the blame on the states for every crisis.

“As per government data, today morning, the demand of electricity in the energy exchange was 16,035 megawatt and supply of electricity was only 2,304 megawatt and that too at a price of Rs. 12 per unit megawatt. This is because 72,074 megawatt capacity plants are not operating. If you ask the reason, they say we don’t have enough coal. If you ask, is there scarcity of coal in our country -- no, the coal mines have an appropriate amount of coal, but the Modi government is not able to transport the coal to the power generating stations, because, they say, we don’t have enough railway rakes. See the excuses, and if you will ask further questions to Modi government, they will say -- states are responsible,” he said.

“If you ask any tough question to Modi government, like why oxygen was not provided during second wave of Corona -- states are responsible. Why employment numbers are not picking up -- states are responsible. Why there is inflation in the economy -- states are responsible. Why petrol and diesel prices are not coming down -- states are responsible. For what purpose are you there in Delhi?” Vallabh said.

“I am sure that nobody is aware that who is the Coal Minister and who is the Power Minister of our country, because both of them might be sitting in a big hall in Shastri Bhavan, where there are two air conditioners running, one from the left side of Hon’ble Minister and one on the right side of Hon’ble Minister. They don’t care and the situation right now is that 16 states of our country have power cuts of ten hours per day and the reason is that 72,074 megawatt capacity power stations are not operating, because there is no coal,” he added.

“Our first question is: Why are these power stations are not operating?” he said.

“Point number two, out of 173 power plants in our country, 106 power plants have coal of 25 per cent or less than 25 per cent of the stock they are supposed to maintain. Why is this? This is question number two,” he said.

“Question number three: everyday there is a demand of coal for 22 lakh tonne, why supply is only of 16 lakh tonne? Why there is a severe mismatch of demand and supply of coal?” he added.

“And last but not the least, in the month of May, we will be having a total demand of power at 2.2 lakh megawatts. What is the plan made by the Modi government to supply this power in the month of May?” Vallabh said.

“Modi government can’t run away from the responsibility that for all tough questions, states are responsible. States are not responsible. Today, the Finance Minister had confirmed that Rs. 78,704 crore of dues of GST are pending from the Central Government to the state government. This is not my data, this is the data which is confirmed by Finance Minister,” he said.

“We demand that this artificial power crisis, which is created due to mismanagement of coal, which is created because of mismanagement of demand side and supply side, should be immediately resolved and people should be provided relief by providing 24x7 power supply in this summer,” he added.