Congress leader Rahul Gandhi slammed Narendra Modi’s government for bulldozing ‘illegal constructions. He rather suggested the center to focus on the shortage of electricity in the country.
“Switch off” bulldozers of “Hate”
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating that India currently has only eight days of coal stocks that have put India in a dangerous situation as far as power availability is concerned.
Writing on Twitter, Gandhi said the government should “switch off” bulldozers of “hate” and focus on power plants in order to protect small-scale industries from power cuts and also avoid job losses. The Congress MP referred to bulldozers in the context of these being used across BJP-ruled states to demolish properties belonging to those accused of indulging in communal violence and other crimes.
महंगाई और बेरोज़गारी ने देश की जनता का दम निकाल दिया है।
सरकार को लोगों की इन समस्याओं पर bulldozer चलाना चाहिए।
मगर भाजपा के bulldozer पर तो नफ़रत और दहशत सवार है।
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 12, 2022
Bulldozing “illegal” structures
This Tweet comes in after the BJP-ruled North Delhi Municipal Corporation, with help from the Delhi Police, which functions under the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, is carrying out an anti-encroachment drive in the Jahangirpuri area where a riot had taken place on April 16, on the occasion of Hanuman Jayanti.
A similar situation was reported in Khargone district, where the administration in Madhya Pradesh started demolition of at least 50 “illegal” structures of people accused of pelting stones at a Ram Navami procession. The state government said the damage caused to public and private properties during the violence will be recovered from rioters.
Coal shortage
Rahul Gandhi referring to these incidents wrote, “8 years of big talk has resulted in India having ONLY 8 DAYS of coal stocks. Modi Ji, stagflation is looming. Power cuts will crush small industries, leading to more job losses. Switch off the bulldozers of hate and switch on the power plants,”
He also linked a picture that carried a June 18, 2020 quote of the Prime Minister wherein he had said that the “coal sector (has been) taken out of decades of lockdown” and also announced a “big step”. The picture also carried a newspaper headline of April 19, 2022 (yesterday) that read, “India stares at outages as coal stocks at power plants hit a low”.
8 years of big talk has resulted in India having ONLY 8 DAYS of coal stocks.
Modi ji, stagflation is looming. Power cuts will crush small industries, leading to more job losses.
Switch off the bulldozers of hate and switch on the power plants! pic.twitter.com/CiqP9SlHMx
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) April 20, 2022
According to the reports, the power sector is likely to face more shortages in the coming months. While demand is predicted to be higher due to the rising summer temperature; supply issues like low coal stock and higher prices of raw materials are likely to haunt the sector.
All India Power Engineers Federation chairman Shailendra Dubey said that the low coal stocks are predicted to worsen the power crisis as there will be a shortfall of about 1.4 percent in April 2022 compared to a 1.1 percent power shortage in October 2021.
