After some states experienced power outages, Amit Shah convenes a high-level meeting

According to news agency ANI, Union Home Minister Amit Shah is chairing a meeting on the country’s current power crisis.

RK Singh, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and Pralhad Joshi, ministers of power, railways, and coal, are also present. The meeting takes place in the midst of a heat wave that has caused power outages in several states.

The country’s power demand has reached a record high in decades, thanks to the hot pre-summer months in several parts of northern India. According to a Reuters analysis of government data, power demand increased 13.2 percent to 135.4 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) as the electricity demand in the north increased by 16 percent to 75 percent.

In April, as utilities scrambled to manage demand as coal supplies dwindled, widespread power outages occurred as a result of the unprecedented electricity use. The shortfall in power supply was 2.41 billion units, or 1.8 percent, the highest since October 2015.

The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has already claimed there is a severe coal shortage.

“There is a “acute shortage” of coal due to a lack of sufficient railway rakes, and electricity supply may be “difficult” if power plants are shut down,” Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain had said.

RK Singh, the Union Minister for Power, retaliated against the Delhi government, accusing it of deceiving the public. Singh expressed his displeasure with the Delhi government misleading the public in a letter to the Delhi power minister, according to PTI.

In response to a letter from the Delhi power minister expressing concern about the coal stockpiles at some NTPC stations that supply power to the NCT of Delhi, Singh stated that the figures were incorrect.