Press Release by Shri Shailendra Dubey, Chairman, All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF)
ALL INDIA POWER ENGINEERS FEDERATION
Press Note, 03 June,2022
Undue pressure is being put on the states by the central government to import coal by reducing supply of domestic coal:
The All India Power Engineers Federation has termed the 01 June directive issued by the Central Government to import coal again as an attempt by the Central Government to put undue pressure on the states and reiterated its demand that since the coal crisis is not the fault of the state power generating houses, hence additional cost of coal imports should be borne by Central Govt.
Shailendra Dubey, Chairman, All India Power Engineers Federation said in a statement issued here today that the order issued by the Central Government on 01 June states that the thermal power stations who have not placed their indents up to 03 June with Coal India Limited for imported coal or have not initiated their own tender process for import of coal for blending purposes they will be allocated only 70% of quantity of domestic coal from 07th June and allocation will be further reduced to 60% from 15th June. This is clearly an inappropriate response being extended to import coal which is not justified.
Shailendra Dubey has appealed to all Chief Ministers of States to strongly oppose this unilateral dictatorial order of Ministry of Power to import coal. It is worthwhile to mention that many States including Uttar Pradesh have decided not to go for import of coal. Other States not going for import of coal are Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Haryana, Kerala.
He said that on the one hand, the Central Government has been claiming till April that the production of Coal India is higher than the previous year and there is no crisis of coal, on the other hand, on the contrary, the Central Government is saying that Power houses should import coal and now this coal import programme has been extended till 31 March,2023.
He said that most of the thermal power stations in the states are not designed for imported coal. Blending imported coal will increase tube leakages in their boilers.
He said that shortage of rakes of railways is being cited as the main reason. In such a situation, how this coal will be transported to the thermal power stations located several thousand kilometres away which will come to the ports, should also be told by the Union Power Minister.
The All India Power Engineers Federation has again stated that the present coal crisis has arisen due to the acute lack of coordination between the various ministries of the Central Government, Power, Coal and Railways. Therefore, undue pressure should not be put on the states to import coal by reducing their allocation of domestic coal and if the states are forced to import coal, then the central government should bear the additional burden of imported coal.
Shailendra Dubey
Chairman