Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday to allocate fresh coal blocks for those projects which are certain to be dropped as it fall under ‘No Go Area' under Surguja district.
In his speech at Sipat at the function where the Prime Minister was the chief guest to dedicate 2980 MW NTPC plant to nation, Raman Singh demanded that fresh coal blocks be allocated for Surguja Ultra Mega Power projects as its coal blocks have come under ‘No Go Area' and thus the Central Government has decided to drop the project. Raman's demand came in wake of recent reports that the Power Ministry had shelved the plan to set up a
Rs 20,000-crore ultra mega power project at Surguja as the coal blocks for the proposed project fall under dense forest area and the project would have an adverse impact on the environment.Raman further claimed that Chhattisgarh is one of the leading states in terms of GDP and per capita annual power consumption in the state has reached 1567 units, though the national average is just 700 units. He also stated that Chhattisgarh is the first state of the country to have ‘zero power-cut' status.