'Modi hai, mumkin hai': Chidambaram jabs Centre over power outages

New Delhi, Apr 30: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday slammed the Centre over the issue widespread power outages, saying the government has found the ''perfect solution'' to it which is to cancel passenger trains and run coal rakes.

Various states continued to reel under power shortages on Friday with soaring mercury pushing the demand higher, as opposition parties blamed the Centre for coal shortages at thermal plants.

Attacking the government over the issue, Chidambaram said, ''Abundant coal, large rail network, unutilised capacity in thermal plants. Yet, there is acute power shortage. Modi Government cannot be blamed. It is because of 60 years of Congress rule!'' ''There is no incompetence in the Ministries of Coal, Railway or Power. The blame lies with past Congress ministers of the said departments!'' he said.

''Government has found the perfect solution: cancel passenger trains and run coal rakes! Modi hai, mumkin hai,'' the former Union minister said in a series of tweets.

As a heatwave continued, the country's peak power demand touched an all-time high of 207.11 GW on Friday and the railways cancelled 42 passenger trains to facilitate coal freight movement, with South East Central Railway (SECR) division that covers the coal-producing regions cancelling 34 trains.

In view of power outages due the coal crisis in several states, Indian Railways has decided to cancel 657 train trips to speed up the movement of coal rakes to power plants.

The demand for power has increased manifold in April as many states face power cuts. The problem has been accentuated by a steep rise in prices of imported coal due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict and some power plants not operating to their full capacity.