Holding the Uttar Pradesh Government responsible for the prevailing power crisis in the State, Union Power and Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said that the Samajwadi Government does not seem to be interested in solving the power crisis. “We are unable to move forward with UP Government because of its non-cooperative attitude as not a single project is granted under the power development fund,” Goyal said while interacting with a select group of journalists through video-conferencing here on Sunday.
The Union Minister said that he had a telephonic conversation with Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday and it is possible that a discussion might be held either in Delhi or lucknow. He further said that poor law and order situation was another reason responsible for power crisis in the State as contractor is ready to work in the villages for rural electrification. “line loss of around 42 per cent in the State is abnormal and the Centre would not be able to help UP if it was not rectified,” he said.
“We have 71 MPs from the State but our hands are tied as the State Government is not at all concerned about the power crisis,” Goyal said. He further said that the Centre had provided 377 megawatts of additional power to UP since May last but it stopped taking it after a month. “We are also giving the maximum 6,384 MW of power to UP from the Central pool’, he said.