Rejecting AAP MLA from Ajnala Kuldeep Dhaliwal’s claim that the Centre had curtailed Punjab’s power share, BJP national office in-charge and MP Tarun Chugh on Monday hit out at the Bhagwant Mann government over the deepening power crisis in the state.With industries facing power cuts of up to 14 hours, domestic consumers suffering prolonged outages and farmers also being affected, Chugh said Punjab’s state-owned power plants were operating at less than half their capacity.“Bhagwant Mann government is once again trying to escape accountability by blaming the Central Government for its own failures. Explain why adequate arrangements were not made when it knew well in advance that power demand would rise. The paddy season, irrigation requirements, high temperatures and rising domestic and industrial consumption were all predictable,” he said.Citing official data released by the Ministry of Coal on September 6, Chugh said coal stocks at Punjab’s three state-owned thermal power plants stood at around 117 per cent of the normative requirement as on September 4. Despite the adequate stock, the three plants utilised only around 42 per cent of their generation capacity during August 2026, he said.Punjab’s three state-owned thermal power plants—Guru Hargobind Thermal Power Station at Lehra Mohabbat, Goindwal Sahib Thermal Power Plant and Ropar Thermal Power Station—have a combined capacity of 2,300 MW. In contrast, Punjab-based private power producer Nabha Power Ltd operated at around 93 per cent of its generation capacity during the same period, he said.Chugh said the Centre had also extended substantial support to Punjab to ensure coal availability. The Central Government had enabled the movement of coal from PSPCL’s captive Pachhwara Central Coal Mine to Punjab-based power plants, subject to statutory requirements, he said.Coal from the captive mine can also be utilised by Punjab-based independent power producers, including Nabha Power Ltd and Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd, under prescribed conditions. “The Punjab Government must therefore explain why available resources and mechanisms were not fully utilised to meet the state’s power requirements,” Chugh said.He said subsidiaries of Coal India had also offered coal to Punjab-based IPPs, but the quantities offered had not been fully booked and lifted.Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) offered five lakh tonnes of coal to Nabha Power and Talwandi Sabo Power on March 30, 2026. Of this, around 4.1 lakh tonnes had been booked and approximately 3.1 lakh tonnes lifted so far, he said.Similarly, Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) offered 3.5 lakh tonnes to Nabha Power, against which only around 1.3 lakh tonnes had been booked and about 0.98 lakh tonnes lifted, Chugh said.“These figures expose the weakness of the Punjab Government’s attempt to blame the entire crisis on the Centre’s coal supply,” he said.