Mumbai: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) spokesperson Nawab Malik on Friday levelled serious allegations against the Maharashtra government over alleged irregularities related to the auction of four power plants in Koradi, Nagpur.  The state has been facing a serious electricity problem for the last two weeks, especially the rural areas which are facing three to six hours of power cuts nowadays. There has been buzz of low coal production hitting generation. The power situation has riled the public and even opposition parties are hitting the road against the issue.

The NCP leader said, “Despite the state facing a severe power crisis, the government has gone ahead with its single tender auction discarding four power plants. This is a scam. Now the government wants to sell its coal block from Odisha to a private company by portraying a power crisis in the state,” he alleged. These accusations are likely to set off a new conflict between the party and the government.

But the director of Maharashtra State Electricity Board’s holding company, Vishwas Pathak, who is also a BJP leader, denied the allegations. “The central government has come up with a policy of discarding plants more than 25 years old. The action taken in Koradi plant is in accordance with the rule,” he said. He also said that another plant of 630 MW has started in Koradi.

On the coal block allegation, Mr Pathak said, “The state government’s power generating company MahaGenco is not an expert in coal excavation. As this sector has opened up now, even the government owned WCL, and all other partners, could bid for coal excavation. So allegations of fake coal crisis are baseless.”

Elaborating on the coal crisis, the NCP leader said, “The central government had given coal block in Odisha to Gujarat and Maharashtra. The Gujarat government wants to sell it to a private company. So this buzz of a coal crisis is being purposely created to clear the way for that private businessman. The state government should explain why it is not going ahead with coal mining in Odisha?” he asked.

“There was National Thermal Power Corporation’s (NTPC) decision of reviving old power plant based on coal. NTPC has a scheme ready for it, but overlooking the instructions, the state government went ahead with the proposal of discarding four power plants from Koradi,” said Mr Malik. He further alleged that this tender process of discarding the plants was also dubious as government cleared single bidder tender.