Former Union Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday took a swipe at the Centre over the issue of widespread power outages, saying the Government has found the "perfect solution" to it which is to cancel passenger trains and run coal rakes.
The senior Congress leader also said the Ministries of coal, railway and power are desperately inventing excuses to hide their "monumental incompetence".
Various states continued to reel under power crisis with soaring mercury pushing demand higher, as opposition parties blamed the Centre for coal shortage at thermal plants.
Chidambaram in a tweet said the ministries of coal, railway and power are desperately inventing excuses to hide their "monumental incompetence".
"If they believed the yarn that we were witnessing a V-shaped recovery, they would have stepped up coal production and coal imports," said the former finance minister.
Despite the absence of a V-shaped recovery, and only a recovery in fits and starts, the government is "totally unprepared" to tackle the coal-rail-power crisis, the former Union minister said.
As shortages persist and inflation rises, please brace for more hardships, he added
Chidambaram also referred to reports which has said Indian Railways "vastly underestimated the requirements for 2021-22”.
"Evidently, no lessons were learnt and the situation has worsened in the first month of 2022-23. Has the Minister of Railway fixed accountability for the grave lapse?" he said.
Why has the minister not tendered an apology to the country, Chidambaram asked.
Along with Congress leaders The Aam Aadmi Party has also held the Centre responsible for the ongoing power crisis and alleged that logistical support was not being provided for coal distribution to power plants.