Working to ensure critical coal supplies during lockdown: Joshi

The government on Saturday said it is working to ensure critical coal supplies during the lockdown on account of coronavirus outbreak.

Coal stocks at power plants stand at 41.8 million tonnes (MT) equivalent to 24 days consumption as of March 26, 2020.

"Minister of Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Shri Pralhad Joshi has ensured that Coal supplies are declared as an Essential service and directed all the officials of Ministry of Coal to work harder to ensure that critical coal supplies are maintained during the lockdown period due to COVID 19 pandemic so that power and other critical sectors are unaffected due to the current situation," Ministry of Coal said in a statement.

Daily meetings of all senior officers of the ministry are being held for monitoring coal production, supplies and despatch, it said.

The first such virtual meeting was taken on March 26, 2020 through video conferencing by Coal Secretary Anil Kumar Jain.

A daily report will be given to the coal minister. As Ministry of Coal is a fully paperless office the entire staff is working on the e-office platform from the ministry or at home as per duty rosters, it said.

The minister informed that various steps have been taken to ensure the easy and adequate availability of coal to every coal dependent industry/Power Sector.

The Union minister appreciated work being done by Coal India Limited where all officers and workers are ensuring the coal production and supplies are not affected in these critical times.

Joshi further assured that no approvals requiring concurrence of Ministry of Coal would be held up during the current lockdown.