Union Mines, Power, New and Renewable Energy and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday slammed seven State governments for failing to depute ministers to a conference hosted by the Centre here and said those who had not bothered to attend could forget about getting any assistance from him in the future.
“I have said this many times before but this time, I’ve told my officials that I will follow it very strictly myself. If some States are not showing seriousness, if a State minister is so busy that they don’t have time to come and participate in this meeting… Agar woh bhaag nahin le sakte, to woh bhaag lein (If they can’t participate, then they can stay away for good),” the Minister said.
“Then, don’t come me for any issue, don’t come to me with any request, don’t come asking for something under different schemes or say, ‘We want unallocated power, we are having coal problems.’ Then my ears will also be shut,” he said, adding that 22 States were represented by ministers at the two-day conference that began in the capital on Wednesday.
“Whoever has a minister friend from States, I would request you to call them during the tea break and convey my message, whichever party they are from, BJP or any party,” Mr Goyal said at the meeting that included ministers from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra and Karnataka, among others.
Stressing that the ministries under his watch were not partisan in their approach to States, Mr Goyal said he even risked his Rajya Sabha ticket when he took a decision favouring Karnataka at the expense of Maharashtra, the State from where he has been elected to the Upper House of Parliament.
“We have never played any favourites with States… I have even cut mines allocated to Maharashtra and transferred them to Karnataka, taking a huge burden in the process…Even my Rajya Sabha renomination was in danger,” he said, adding in jest that Karnataka had offered to send him to Parliament instead.
The conference with State ministers was meant to take forward deliberations on achieving the goal to provide 24/7 electricity to all households by 2019 instead of 2022, apart from other issues.
“When we met in Vadodara last time, all States’ ministers and officials had all signed off on the deadline by when each house will get an electricity connection. Each State has a commitment as part of the resolution and we will need your acceptance on this resolution,” he said.
Mr Goyal also said officials in his ministries were forbidden from discussing or mentioning the working of the ministries before May 27, 2014.
“We shouldn’t do our work or build a strategy based on history. In my ministries, there’s a rule that I can share with you also — no official is allowed to discuss how work happened before May 27, 2014. Nobody is permitted to remind us of those times and tell me, “Earlier this is how it was done.”
