New Delhi: PMO on Monday started the exercise to review the performance of the power sector, as a follow up to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with the power company honchos last week.
"The issue of coal shortage and how to ramp up coal production in the country was discussed in the meeting at PMO," sources said.
Top power company heads including Anil Ambani and Ratan Tata had discussed with the Prime Minister the problems facing the sector, including coal and gas shortages that are hampering its growth.
The delegation of promoters and CEOs of over dozen companies also met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde.
Pricing issues related to imported coal for power projects, delay in environment and forest clearances, funding problems, worsening health of power distribution companies and a proposal to levy duty on imported power equipment were also discussed in the meeting.
A Committee of Secretaries -- headed by Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterji and secretaries from the Ministries of Power, Petroleum, Coal, Environment and Finance -- was set up to look into the problems faced by the sector.
It would chalk out 30-day, 60-day and 90-day plans to resolve the issues. The power sector leaders would meet with the Prime Minister after a period of 90 days to review the progress.
The first meeting in that regard was taken up in the PMO on Monday, sources added.
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