The state assembly on Thursday witnessed noisy scene and heated exchange of words between the treasury and the opposition benches over the power crisis. The opposition accused the SP government of failing to fulfill its pre poll promise of providing 16 hours power supply to rural areas and 22 hours to the urban areas. The opposition also charged that the government despite the failure of the power utilities to supply uninterrupted power supply there was no let up in what the opposition called as Rs arbitrary hike’ in power tariff, thus adding to the woes of the power consumers of all the Categories.
The opposition alleged that the power crisis has dealt a severe blow to the all sectors of the economy particularly the agriculture. The crisis of the farmers has been aggravated by the deficient rainfall in large parts of the state, they said.
Both the BJP and the main opposition BSP had given the adjournment notice following which the speaker had allowed an hour long debate. Both the parties dissatisfied with the government’s reply staged a noisy walkout from the house.
Initiating the debate the leader of opposition Swami Prasad Maurya said contrary to the claims of the government 16 hour power supply in rural areas it was hardly one hour supply that too highly erratic. He said same was the situation in urban areas and all district and divisional headquarters. long hours of power cut coupled with frequent interruptions have ruined the trade, business and commercial establishments and have also affected the education sector – the student’s community.
Maurya, the senior BSP leader charged that barring the few VIP districts, the native towns of the senior Samajwadi Party leaders, entire state was reeling under severe power crisis at the height of highly humid weather. He said deficient rainfall in east and central UP and Bundelkhand region have also severely hit the farmers and they were unable to plant the paddy in the fields as there was no power for running the tube wells. Maurya alleged that the rampant corruption in UP Power Corporation limited (UPPCl) particularly in purchase of sub standard transformers from a particular cartel of contractors was also one of the big reasons for the frequent failure in power supply and long hours of power cut.
Radha Mohan Das Agarwal of the BJP said even on the Independence Day there was no power in his city Gorakhpur. Blaming the poor management of the thermal power plants the BJP member said the 1,000 MW Anpara D thermal power plant is not working due to series of snags in the plant recently inaugurated by the chief minister. He said same is the state of the 1,000 MW Anpara C thermal units which is also closed for technical reasons. He said despite import of 6,000 MW from the central sector plants there is no let up in power crisis in the state. He said among the several MOUs signed by the state government with the independent power producers in 2012 only one unit has been commissioned.
The minister of state for power Yasir Shah said from next year 2016 government is committed to supply 16-18 hours supply to rural areas and 22-24 hours in urban areas. He said by the end of August, private sector thermal plant in lalitpur would be commissioned and Anpara D would résumé generation,
Training his guns at the previous BSP government he said his government had inherited a deficit of Rs 25,000 crore in power sector and SP government within seven months of taking the office in March 2012 had to replace close to 1.5 lakh transformers across the state. He charged that during the BSP rule sub standard transformers were purchased by the UPPCl in large quantity.
The minister said with the efforts of the government the line losses have been reduced to 32 percent and in next 12 months we will reduce it by another 10 percent. The BSP charged that the minister instead of answering the specific issues raised by the opposition is beating around the bush and staged a walkout from the house. later the BJP also followed the BSP.