The party alleges this was done for cuts while buying expensive power from the private sector
Madhav Bhandari said according to MahaGenco, none of its power plants were shut due to coal shortage. File pic
The Bharatiya Janata Party has accused the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of creating artificial power shortage to earn a percentage of commission from buying expensive electricity from the private sector.
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The party’s state Vice-President Madhav Bhandari told a media conference on Monday that the MVA’s fuss was now exposed. “First the government created an artificial power shortage and brought tears to the eyes of the common man, and now it is pretending to wipe their tears. The farmers reeling under loan repayment were promised a loan waiver. And now once again the government is giving false reasons for the coal shortage for generation of electricity to farmers and general public who are subjected to power cuts.”
Madhav Bhandari, VP, Maharashtra BJP
He said, according to MahaGenco, none of its power plants were shut due to coal shortage. “Lack of management and planning has caused power cuts. The artificial power shortage is being created only to earn a percentage of commission from buying expensive electricity from the private sector,” he alleged. He said since the Central government has capped the rate of purchasing power in the open market, the commission business of the people concerned has got affected. He demanded that the government come out with factual coal shortage statistics.
“Power cuts create a negative impact on the state. Pointing fingers at the Central government for anything like coal shortage is an old tactic. This is the government’s pathetic attempt to cover up its failure,” Bhandari added.
He said that despite the trend that the demand for electricity increases from March to the end of June, the government deliberately neglected to stockpile enough coal and kept some plants of 2,000 MW shut for maintenance when the demand was at its peak. He asked the government to disclose the actual data on electricity bill arrears from various government offices instead of imposing load shedding on the common man.