Coal Secy blames power plants for low coal stocks

Blaming power producers for low coal stocks at plants, Coal Secretary Susheel Kumar has asserted that there is no shortage of coal and plants should adhere to the Central Electricity Authority’s guidelines for stocking of the dry fuel.

“The sentiment that is being created by some people is just to meet their own ends ... so as to get more and more coal,” Kumar said. Asserting that there was no shortage of coal, Kumar said that the pithead stock of Coal India as on October 10 was at 30.3 million tonnes. “The root cause of all this problem is that many power plants have not followed the CEA (Central Electricity Authority) guidelines of stocking coal for 22 days. This is not the Ministry of Coal instruction. This is the Ministry of Power’s instructions,” Kumar explained.

“Now some of the chief secretaries and the chief ministers are also raising this issue. I have written to all of them saying when we mentioned in June that you stock as per the CEA guidelines (as) there is a likelihood of disruption in monsoon and there was also looming threat of employees (Coal India) strike call.” Kumar said.

He said that the people have to maintain discipline and adhere to the guidelines.