A day after Chief Minister Yogi Aditynath met Union Power minister Piyush Goel in New Delhi, the latter said that the UP government has committed its full support for the drive against power theft as stipulated in `Power For All’ MOU signed with the state government on April 14. Goel said that rural electrification programme was doing well in UP and only six villages were without power.
“The CM informed me that several steps have been taken to curb the menace of power theft and action against power bill defaulter. A special drive has been launched to check line losses and in coming days, none, involved inpower pilferage, would be spared. Special police stations for power theft would also be set up in UP like Gujarat while smart electric meters would be installed to prevent power thefts,” the Power minister said.
Addressing a video-press conference from New Delhi on the third anniversary of Narendra Modi government on Monday, Piyush Goel said that several measures for reforms in power sector have been introduced after the BJP came to power in UP.
“We have discussed the power road map of UP besides generating around 10,000 megawatt solar power by 2022,” he said.
“During the meeting with Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, we discussed all issues relating to power sector like generation, transmission and distribution besides the issue of ‘Power For All’. The CM informed me that the state government was working as per the MOU signed on April 14to provide each household with uninterrupted power by 2022,” said Goel.
Without naming any political party or leader, the Power minister said that a politician of a particular area was misusing power during the previous regime and was caught when the government changed in March last.
“ Such activities need to be curbed with a heavy hand and political interference has to be checked for meeting the target of `Power for All’,” said Goel.
Speaking on rural electrification in UP, the Power minister said that of the total 1,529 villages which did not power, only six villages in the state UP are left to be energized.
Commenting on the potential of solar power generation in UP, Goel said that Bundelkhand and some other regions have huge potential for generation of solar power.
“I have asked the UP government to identify barren and waste lands for setting up solar power plants to be used for power,” said the minister.
During the video conferencing, Goel detailed the achievements of the NDA government’s three year rule at the centre besides presenting a road map for the future