Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday took a gibe at the Centre over the issue of widespread power crisis across the country, saying the union government had found the “perfect solution” to it which is to cancel passenger trains and run coal rakes.
Several states across the country have been continuing to reel under power outages with soaring mercury pushing the demand higher with the opposition parties blaming the Narendra Modi-led BJP government for coal shortages at thermal plants.
“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 rule!” Chidambaram said in a tweet.
“There is no incompetence in the Ministries of Coal, Railway or Power. The blame lies with past Congress ministers of the said departments!” he added.
In another tweet, the former Union minister said, “Government has found the perfect solution: cancel passenger trains and run coal rakes! Modi hai, mumkin hai.”
Due to the ferocious heatwave, the country’s peak power demand on Friday touched an all-time high of 207.11 GW. The railways have cancelled 42 passenger trains to facilitate coal freight movement, with South East Central Railway division that covers the coal-producing regions cancelling 34 trains, PTI reported.
Opposition parties, the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party held the BJP government responsible for the ongoing power crisis and alleged that logistical support was not being provided for coal distribution to power plants.
