Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal (left) and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan
The war of words between Union Power Minister
Piyush Goyal and Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan continues with both attacking each other over the prevailing power crisis.
"It is election time and there is an element of politics in this. I made several attempts to reach out to him. May be he was busy with more pressing issues than power," Mr Goyal told reporters in Delhi.
He also dubbed as "baseless" allegations made by the Chief Minister
that the Centre was not cooperating with the Maharashtra government in tackling the power situation, and instead accused the latter of "politicizing" the issue.
Rejection the Power Minister's charges, Mr Chavan said, "It is not a fight between the Maharashtra Congress and the Gujarat BJP. It's a national crisis caused due to certain orders by the highest court and decisions of power firms to provide electricity after Indonesia changed some of its laws. It is not my job to negotiate with Indonesia."
"If the central government can't resolve the issue, it should shoulder complete responsibility," the Chief Minister added.
Maharashtra, which is one of several states that is at odds with the Centre over power and coal supplies, is due to hold elections later this year.
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