How the government gave Coal India a bad name
The world’s largest coal producer, blamed for the recent power shortage, is facing an existential crisis that may not entirely be its doing.
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Editor's note: There’s little doubt that Coal India Ltd, the world’s largest producer of coal, is to blame for the power crisis that the country is just about recovering from. At least, that’s what coal secretary Anil Kumar Jain clearly indicated in his scathing letter to CIL chairman Pramod Agrawal. In the letter, dated 27 September, when the first danger signs emerged and just before the power crisis arising out of a coal shortage threatened widespread blackouts in the country, Jain pointed out CIL’s failure to meet targets. “During FY 2021-22 (till 21 Sept.), against a coal production target of 260.4 MT (million tonnes), actual coal production is 237.35 MT. Similarly against the coal off-take target of 351.04 MT, actual coal off-take is 293.10 MT, with a huge deficit of 58 MT,” the secretary wrote. Inexplicably, CIL seemed to have failed to supply coal to its customers even as stocks of the fossil fuel kept piling up at its mines. “The poor performance of CIL has specially been viewed seriously by the ministry. It is imperative on the part of CIL to …
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