Amit Shah holds high-level meeting after some states faced power crisis: report

Union home minister Amit Shah is chairing a meet on the current power crisis in the country, news agency ANI reported.

Power minister RK Singh, railways minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and coal minister Pralhad Joshi are also present. The meeting comes amid power cuts being reported from several states amid heatwave.

With several parts of northern India reeling under hot pre-summer months, the country’s power demand has peaked to a record high in decades. Power demand grew 13.2% to 135.4 billion kilowatt hours (kWh), as the electricity requirement in the north grew between 16% and 75%, a Reuters analysis of government data showed.

The unprecedented electricity use resulted in widespread power cuts in April, as utilities scrambled to manage demand as coal supplies dwindled. Power supply fell short of demand by 2.41 billion units, or 1.8%, the worst since October 2015.

In Delhi, the Aam Aadmi Party government has already claimed that there is a an acute coal shortage.

“There is an “acute shortage” of coal due to the unavailability of an adequate number of railway rakes and there may be “difficulty” in electricity supply if power plants are shut,” Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain had said.

Union power minister RK Singh hit back at the Delhi government, accusing it of misleading people. In a letter shot off to the Delhi power minister, Singh has expressed displeasure at the Delhi government misleading the public, PTI reported.

Replying to a letter by the Delhi power minister expressing concern about coal stock position of some NTPC stations supplying power to NCT of Delhi, Singh said the figures were incorrect.