Even as most states, barring a few, have fallen in line with the ministry of power’s (MoP) directive and started the process of importing 10% coal to meet the shortage of domestic coal, the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has urged the central government to compensate each and every state that is being forced to import coal in absence of adequate domestic coal. In the absence of this financial help, the financial condition of the utilities will deteriorate further, it said.
In a letter to Union power minister RK Singh and marked to chief ministers of all states and Union territories, the chairman of AIPEF, Shailendra Dubey, demanded that if states are forced to import coal, the Government of India must bear the additional burden of import, so that the financially distressed discoms and the common consumers are not burdened further.
Stating that the coal shortage did not develop overnight, but was the result of a systematic policy failure and gross mismanagement on part of the central government, Dubey said that the states should not be loaded for the follies made by the Centre.
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