Rahul Gandhi takes potshot at PM Narendra Modi over coal shortage, says 'only eight days of stocks left'

New Delhi: A day after the Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a meeting on the coal and power crisis in the country, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that only eight days of coal stocks are left in the country.

Rahul said, "Eight years of big talk has resulted in India having only eight days of coal stocks."

He asked the "Centre to switch off the bulldozers of hate and focus on the power plants in order to prevent the loss of small scale industries leading to more job losses".

"Modi Ji, stagflation is looming. Power cuts will crush small industries, leading to more job losses. Switch off the bulldozers of hate and switch on the power plants!" tweeted Gandhi.

The Congress leader also shared a picture quoting PM Modi's announcement on June 18, 2020, to auction 41 coal mines for commercial mining in order to make India self-reliant in energy by reducing imports. He compared it with the current coal crisis situation in the country.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday held a meeting with Power Minister RK Singh, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi and Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav amid reports of ongoing coal and power situation across the country.

The meeting was held in the wake of several states warning of a possible power crisis due to the shortage of coal supply to power plants, officials said.

There are reports of depleting coal inventory of domestic thermal power plants in 12 states like Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Jharkhand and Haryana which are facing power cuts ranging from 3 to 8.7 per cent.

In the first fortnight of April 2022, domestic power demand reportedly hit a 38-year high for the month. While there was a 1.1 per cent power shortage in October 2021, this shot up to 1.4 per cent in April 2022.

Union Power Minister R K Singh has blamed the steep rise in the prices of imported coal on the Russia-Ukraine war. This is because of the inadequate availability of railway wagons to transport coal.