Prime Minister Dr. Mammohan Singh on Tuesday directed various ministries to help the Andhra Pradesh government in handling the
crisis brought about by the "Sakula Janula Samme" or the "people's general strike".
The Prime Minister spoke to the Power Secretary, the Coal Secretary and the NTPC chief, asking them to extend support to the state government.
Earlier, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy spoke to the Prime Minister over phone, seeking additional allocation of gas, power and coal for Andhra Pradesh.
The Chief Minister said that due to the ongoing strike in Singareni Collieries, the generation of power from coal-based power units of APGenco and NTPC has been severely affected, and that there is a serious shortage of power in the state due to the strike.
The CM had also written a letter to the PM in this regard.
The Chief Minister said that the Union Ministry Of Power has been requested to allocate an additional 500 MW of power from the unallocated power of Central Generating Stations (CGS) in the southern region, to tide over the present crisis.
The CM told the PM that the Ministry Of Petroleum And Natural Gas has been requested to divert 1.7 MMSCMD of natural gas of M/s GMR Vemagiri and other mini gas-based projects to other standard gas-based IPPs of AP.
Meanwhile the Kiran Kumar Reddy said he had also requested the Ministry Of Coal to direct the Mahanadi Coal Fields to allot at least 30,000 MT of coal to APGENCO.
Similarly, an allocation of 4 lakh MT of coal from Western Coal Limited and 5 lakh MT from Central Coal Fields has been requested to meet the requirement of APGENCO's thermal stations. (INN)