Amit Shah holds meet with ministers of coal, power & railway amid shortage fear

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday held a meeting with Power Minister RK Singh, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav amid reports of ongoing coal and power situation across the country, sources said.

Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba, CMD of Naveli Lignite Corporation, key officials concerned of the Coal Ministry along with other officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) were also present in the meeting. The meeting was held in the Home Ministry in which issues of ongoing coal and power situation in the country were learnt to be discussed, an official source said. The meeting was chaired by the Home Minister Shah.

During over one-hour-long meeting, the four Ministers were believed to have discussed the availability of coal to power plants and the current power demands.

A similar meeting was held in October last year too following the coal crisis in the country.

The meeting was held in the wake of several states warning of a possible power crisis due to the shortage of coal supply to power plants, officials said.

There are reports of depleting coal inventory of domestic thermal power plants in 12 states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Jharkhand and Haryana which are facing power cuts ranging from 3 to 8.7 per cent.

In the first fortnight of April 2022, domestic power demand reportedly hit a 38-year high for the month.

While there was a 1.1 per cent power shortage in October 2021, this shortfall shot up to 1.4 per cent in April 2022.

Union Power Minister R. K. Singh has blamed the steep rise in the prices of imported coal on the Russia-Ukraine war. This is because of the inadequate availability of railway wagons to transport coal.