All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has defined the central government's decision to import coal as an attempt to put excessive pressure on the states.

Since the current coal crisis is not the responsibility of state power plants, the federation reiterated its demand that the additional cost of coal imports be borne by the central government.

According to union power ministry directives to all power generation company (Gencos), if the orders for the import of coal for blending are not placed by Gencos by May 31, and if the imported coal for blending purposes does not start arriving at the power plants by June 15, all defaulter Gencos would have to import coal for blending purpose to the extent of 15% instead of 10% until October 31.

Shailendra Dubey, chairwoman of the AIPEF, told the media that the union power ministry's approach is inappropriate.

On the one hand, the government claimed until April that coal output in India was higher than the previous year and that there was no coal shortage, but now it is recommending that power plants purchase coal.

He said that most of the states' thermal power plants were not built to handle imported coal.

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