Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister Senthil Balaji urges Union government to allot coal for State

CHENNAI:  Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji on Thursday met Union Minister RK Singh in New Delhi along with TANGEDCO Chairman Rajesh Lakhoni and submitted a petition seeking sufficient coal for the State.

Briefing media persons, he added that of 23.763 Metric Tonnes (MT) of coal, Tamil Nadu has received only 17.11 MT from the Centre, which is only about 72 per cent. He requested allotment of the remaining coal.“Chandrabila coal block in Odisha was allotted to Tamil Nadu in 2016 to develop the coal mine and excavate coal within 66 months.

But, we (TN) could not get clearance from the Forest Department in the past. So, we urge the Central government to extend the timeline and revise the time schedule for the development of the Chandrabila coal block. Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation and Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency had lent TANGEDCO loans with interest rates ranging from 9.5 to 12.65 per cent. TANGEDCO pays around Rs 7,000 crore as interest every year. Hence, we demand to reduce the interest rate to bank interest rate of 8.5 per cent,” the minister added.

The eligible subsidy amount of Rs 1,330.93 crore has now been released only as loan. He requested to consider the conversion of loan into grant. Under the Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme, Tamil Nadu has been allocated Rs 8,647 crore. He insisted that this be increased to Rs 12,000 crore.

Responding to mediapersons, Senthil Balaji said if the Central government allocates sufficient coal to TN, we can reduce our expenditures (on importing coal). “Former electricity minister P Thangamani has to answer about missing coal before criticising me. Besides, he is the one and only politician who has been involved in a scam and had invested the money in cryptocurrency,” he added.