Maharashtra govt to import coal to deal with load shedding crisis

Amidst load shedding issues in Maharashtra, state Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday said that the state government has decided to import coal from outside the country and also said that efforts are underway to get one coal mine in Chhattisgarh allocated to Maharashtra's power department.

On the sideline of an award function of a co-operative Bank in Pune today while speaking to the media, Pawar said that the way coal should be supplied to the states is not happening in that proportion in various states including Maharashtra.

While talking to media persons, Pawar said, "The load shedding is going on in the state. A meeting was held with Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and as instructed by the CM."

He further stated that he will take the review of the power department every week on the issue of load shedding and the cabinet has given the approval to see if there is any availability of power in another part of the country, efforts are being done to do away with the load shedding and made the smooth supply of the power in the state.

"The coal supply to the various states is not enough as required, Maharashtra is also not getting enough supply and that is why we have taken a decision to import the coal from outside the country.

"Besides, there are efforts being made to get one coal mine allocated for the Maharashtra State Power department. Minister Nitin Raut is working on it, and Congress president Sonia Gandhi has also asked the Chhattisgarh government to allocate one coal mine to Maharashtra."

On the question of whether vendetta politics is being played by not providing coal to Maharashtra, he said, "It's not like that issue of shortage of coal supply is in the various states not only in Maharashtra, There are issues of railway wagons. Today railway wagons are needed to transport coal, sugar, wheat and other essential commodities which need to be taken to the ports."

He further said that he does not want to do politics over it and admitted that there is a shortage of coal in the state.

( With inputs from ANI )

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