Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday once again raised concern about a looming power crisis pointing to the fast diminishing stock of coal in city’s power plants.

Kejriwal tweeted, “The situation is critical and many Chief Ministers have written about it to the Central Government. We all are working together to improvethe situation.”

Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain also sounded the alarm and said the NTPC has halved the power supply to the city from the usual 4,000 MW.

He said the Central Government should answer that even when all NTPC plants are working at 50 to 55 per cent capacity, then why is the shortage of coal arising.

The Minister asked the Centre that if there is no power crisis, then why UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has written a letter to the

Union Government.

Addressing the media, he also said the city Government has to depend on costly gas-based power and spot purchase at a high market rate.

“No power plant should have coal stock of fewer than 15 days. Right now, most of the plants have 2-3 days of stock left. The Centre should explain that despite this, why is there a coal crunch in the county.”

After a meeting with his department officials, Jain said at one time electricity demand was more than 7,300 MW, which has come down to 4,562 MW in today’s time.

“Even after the demand is low, we have to buy electricity at the rate of Rs 17 to 20. The Delhi Government has its most power purchase agreements with NTPC, but they have cut power production at their plants by 50 per cent,” he said.