BRS asks for coal figures; Telangana gets barricades

The BRS held a statewide mobilisation at Telangana’s thermal power plants and Singareni offices on September 24, demanding answers on coal stocks, generation and alleged power cuts. Police barricades, reported detentions and scuffles accompanied the exercise — apparently the government’s preferred substitute for publishing the figures.

Teams led by former minister G Jagadish Reddy and MLA Palla Rajeshwar Reddy visited, or attempted to visit, Yadadri, Kakatiya, Bhadradri and Kothagudem plants. BRS leaders alleged that Kakatiya was receiving about 1,500 tonnes of coal a day against a requirement of 5,000 tonnes, and that production at Bhupalapally was below 2,000 tonnes against a requirement of around 5,000 tonnes. The Congress government, GENCO and SCCL have not publicly provided a substantive response in the material reviewed.

The BRS’s central claim — that coal shortages caused a statewide power crisis — is not established by the available records. SCCL reported 8.93 lakh tonnes of stock on September 1 and 7.98 lakh tonnes on September 19, alongside April–September production of 24.10 million tonnes and power-utility dispatches of 24.39 million tonnes. Those are company-wide figures, not plant-level evidence. TGTRANSCO’s current supply page says “No records” and displays old October 2018 entries. The government has not bothered to put the current operational data on the table; the barricades, at least, were fully operational.