TN blames Centre for power outage, AIADMK stages walkout in Assembly

Chennai: While the AIADMK targeted the ruling DMK on Friday in the Assembly over power cuts in Tamil Nadu, the State government blamed inadequate coal supplies by the Centre and sudden interruption in power supply from the Central pool, and hit out at the principal opposition party for a “mischievous campaign” on power outage in the State.
Chief Minister M K Stalin, meanwhile, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to direct the Union Coal Ministry to ensure supply of 72,000 MT coal per day as per the Fuel Supply Agreement at Paradip and Visakhapatnam ports. “Only this step can enable us to maintain uninterrupted power supply in the State and hence I solicit your personal intervention in this regard,” Stalin said in a letter to Modi.
Raising the power shortage issue in the House by moving a special call attention motion, leader of opposition K Palaniswami said that during the AIADMK regime, 17,120 MW was made available to ensure that there were no power cuts. Considering the increase in power consumption during the summer season, the government should have stepped up electricity generation correspondingly.
However, the government did not store coal needed for power plants for the current season. Electricity Minister V Senthilbalaji had earlier said that requisite coal is available for summer season. However, power cuts are being witnessed and news reports say that it is due to coal shortage, the AIADMK leader said. In view of power cuts in several districts, including Villupuram, Cuddalore and Tiruvannamalai, farming activities, industries and students were affected and people could not have ‘peaceful sleep’ at night. Hitting out at the government on the matter, Palaniswami demanded to know the action being taken to address the situation. —PTI

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