After a gap of one year, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has again raised hue and cry over short supply of coal from the Centre. He has shifted responsibility of power shortage in the state on the Centre and has said his state was experiencing short supply for coal for the last one year, which has affected power generation badly. He has once again demanded coal produced in the state for its own power utilities.
In contrast, a senior official of Western Coalfields Limited (WCL), which supplies coal to Sarni plant in the state, said WCL was supplying more than what was demanded by MP power utility.
“We have supplied 6.9 million tonnes coal to the Sarni power plant against about 7.04 million tonnes of production during 2008-09. Similarly we supplied 4.71 million tonnes of coal against total production of 5.11 million tonnes during April-December this year and our annual agreement is for 6.69 million tonnes for the current year, which we will fully commit to avoid penalty,” the official said. WCL produces coals from Pathakheda (near Sarni), Pench and Kanhan mines of Madhya Pradesh and almost the entire coal is supplied to the Sarni (Betul district) thermal power station.
“The Centre is supplying 1.1 million tonnes of coal against 1.7 million tonnes demand, though MP is the largest producer of coal,” the chief minister remarked to Union Coal Minister Shri Prakash Jaiswal in a function. Responding to him, Jaiswal said that the state government should not trigger coal politics in the state; the Centre was supplying good quality coal to its thermal power utilities.
