Coal shortage caused by rain and lack of imports, says Union Minister Pralhad Joshi

Union Minister of Coal Pralhad Joshi on Thursday stated that there was a coal deficit due to rains. The minister said that the rains and the ceasing of coal imports caused the ongoing coal deficit. He further said that the Centre was now supplying as much as two million tonnes of coal since Wednesday to tackle the deficit. Earlier on Tuesday, Joshi had said that the rains had halted the supply of coal and had caused an escalation of international prices.

Establishing stress on domestic coal production, Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi said that the Centre is meeting the demand for thermal coal power. “There was a shortage of coal due to rain and as coal import was ceased. We are supplying two million tonnes of coal since yesterday. We are making efforts to fulfil the demand for thermal coal power. I visited South Eastern Coalfields yesterday,” Joshi told ANI.

On Wednesday, Joshi had taken to his official Twitter handle to inform that Coal India Limited was increasing coal dispatch to power plants to tackle any power shortage present. “Happy to share that cumulative coal supplies to thermal power plants from all sources including Coal India Limited recorded more than two million tonnes yesterday. We are increasing coal dispatch to power plants further to ensure sufficient coal stocks at power plants,” the minister tweeted.

Earlier on October 12, the minister had refuted the allegation of states, UTs claiming the Centre's inefficiency in supplying adequate stock of coal to run its power plants. Dismissing claims of leaders making such allegations, Joshi told ANI, "Yesterday (October 11) we supplied 1.94 million tons, the highest-ever supply of domestic coal. As far as states are concerned, this year till June, we requested them to increase stock, some of them went on to say that "please do a favour, don't send coal now."  

Nirmala Sitharaman dismisses rumours on coal shortage in India

Redressing speculations over the alleged coal crisis in the country, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday asserted that there existed no such dearth and termed the misinformation as 'absolutely baseless'. In addition, she had deemed the country as power surplus and dismissed rumours in relation to shortages of inventories that disrupt the supply-demand situation in energy consumption or leading to power crisis. "Absolute baseless! There is no shortage of anything," the Finance Minister said during a conversation organised by the Mossavar-Rahmani Centre for Business and Government.

Image: ANI, PTI