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Prominent Muslim leader and head of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM) Asaduddin Owaisi on Tuesday slammed the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi blaming the federal government for the country's coal shortage.
In a series of tweets, Owaisi said: “Under the able and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the coal power stations are left with only an average of four days’ worth of coal stock which might lead to an increase in electricity bills and frequent power cuts as 70 percent of our electricity depends on coal.”
Owaisi also cited a report published on Indian news website Scroll.
Daily newspaper, ‘The Indian Express’, reported that on 30 September, as many as 39 thermal plants with a capacity to generate 52,530 megawatts of electricity, had coal stocks for less than three days.
In an interview with the paper, federal Minister of Power and New & Renewable Energy Raj Kumar Singh said that although it is expected that demand could start tapering off from the latter half of October, the bridging of the fuel gap is still likely to be a “touch and go” affair and that he is bracing himself for what he reckons will be a trying “five or six months”.
“I can’t say I am secure… If you have 40,000-50,000 MW (of thermal capacity) with less than three days of stock, you can’t be secure,” he added.
However, Singh asserted that his team is working continuously in coordination with other ministries to avert a crisis.
He said that until now, “there is nowhere that we have not been able to supply the quantity of power required. If there has been load-shedding it must be for other reasons."