Government 'totally unprepared' to tackle coal-rail-power crisis: P Chidambaram

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday took a swipe at the Centre over the issue of widespread power outages saying the government has found the perfect solution to it which is to cancel passenger trains and run coal rakesHe also said the ministries of coal railway and power are desperately inventing excuses to hide their monumental incompetenceVarious states continued to reel under power crisis on Friday with soaring mercury pushing demand higher as opposition parties blamed the Centre for coal shortage at thermal plantsAttacking the government over the issue Chidambaram said Abundant coal large rail network unutilised capacity in thermal plants Yet there is acute power shortage Modi Government cannot be blamed It is because of 60 years of Congress ruleThere is no incompetence in the Ministries of Coal Railway or Power The blame lies with past Congress ministers of the said departments he saidGovernment has found the perfect solution cancel passenger trains and run coal rakes Modi hai mumkin hai the former Union minister said in a series of tweetsLater Chidambaram in another tweet said the ministries of coal railway and power are desperately inventing excuses to hide their monumental incompetenceIf they believed the yarn that we were witnessing a Vshaped recovery they would have stepped up coal production and coal imports he saidDespite the absence of a Vshaped recovery and only a recovery in fits and starts the government is totally unprepared to tackle the coalrailpower crisis the former Union minister saidAs shortages persist and inflation rises please brace for more hardships he addedIn his tweets Chidambaram also cited a newspaper editorial which has said Indian Railways vastly underestimated the requirements for 202122iquestEvidently no lessons were learnt and the situation has worsened in the first month of 202223 Has the Minister of Railway fixed accountability for the grave lapse he saidWhy has the minister not tendered an apology to the country Chidambaram askedAs a heatwave continued the countrys peak power demand touched an alltime high of 20711 GW on Friday and the railways cancelled 42 passenger trains to facilitate coal freight movement with South East Central Railway SECR division that covers the coalproducing regions cancelling 34 trainsAam Aadmi Party and Congress leaders held the Centre responsible for the ongoing power crisis and alleged that logistical support was not being provided for coal distribution to power plantsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever