Coal India Ltd (CIL) and its subsidiary Western Coalfield Limited (WCL) have denied the allegation levelled by the Maharashtra State Power Generation Co. Ltd (MahaGenco) that they supplied sub-standard quality of coal to the state-owned power company.
In the affidavit filed before the Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court, the companies said that there was "no basis" to MahaGenco's allegation that it was "forced to import coal due to less quantity and poor quality of coal supplied by WCL".
The CIL and WCL claimed that 94 per cent of the coal supplied to MahaGenco in the past three years was of a very superior quality. "Even the quantity was as per the Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA)," they said in the affidavit.
"Coal is susceptible to quality variations due to geological changes in coal seams, changes in weather conditions and other factors which are beyond human control. Being heterogeneous in nature, coal quality can remain inconsistent even in the same mine," the affidavit further said.
It asserted that joint sampling done by WCL and MahaGenco had endorsed the quality of coal and there was no substance in the allegation of poor quality of coal supplied by WCL which was affecting the power scenario in the state, the affidavit claimed.
The affidavit was filed in response to a PIL submitted last week by one Anil Wadpalliwar in the court.
The PIL alleged that due to the ongoing turf war between WCL and MahaGenco, all the consumers of Maharashtra were forced to shell out more money for electricity. "The primary reason was steep hike in generation cost due to less supply of domestic coal and import of costly coal by power utilities," it said.
"Instead of resolving the dispute, everybody is happy to import high-priced coal or purchase costly power produced by private players and burden the state exchequer and consequentially common man of Maharashtra," the PIL said.
