The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused the Centre on Thursday of importing coal at higher rates despite an increase in domestic coal production and said it will not allow imported coal to reach Uttar Pradesh. AAP’s national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh raised questions about purchasing coal from abroad.
“When India’s coal production has increased by 30 percent, why is expensive coal from the Adani Group being bought from abroad?” Singh asked at a press conference here. He claimed that the cost of domestically-produced coal is Rs 3,000 per tonne, while the cost of the coal produced in the mines owned by the Adani Group abroad is Rs 30,000 per tonne.
Due to the purchase of coal from abroad, electricity will become expensive for crores of consumers in the country, Singh said. There was no immediate response from the government over the allegation.
Singh said the AAP will lodge complaints with the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) regarding this “robbery”. He alleged that the BJP-led government at the Centre has made such a plan that coal has to be bought only from the Adani Group’s mines at inflated rates.
“The Aam Aadmi Party will not sit silently against this corruption and will not allow foreign coal to land anywhere in Uttar Pradesh,” Singh said. Showing some papers, he claimed that the Union power minister, while putting pressure on the state energy ministers, had ordered that the states will have to import 10 percent coal from the Adani Group’s mines abroad and said the domestic coal supply will be stopped for the states that fail to do so.
