The Uttar Pradesh Government is working on a proposal to provide electricity connection in the State on the basis of “Aadhaar card” as it plans to upgrade 10 lakh transformers to provide power in seven lakhs homes in two years.
The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP Government which took reins of Government in UP on March 19 has “electrified” 23,000 ‘Dabras’ (small villages) in last 50 days. There are a total of 1,66,000 un-electrified ‘Dabras’ in the State, which would be electrified by 2018, according to State’s Power Minister Shrikant Sharma.
Sharma said during last 15 years which had Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav’s regimes in Uttar Pradesh, the power infrastructure in the State has gone kaput and needed to be rebuilt afresh.
The UP Minister, who is also ‘Mantri-in-charge’ of development for two districts of Balia and Bijnore, said 10 lakh transformers were being upgraded so as to electrify seven lakh homes.
Asked about the power situation in the State, Sharma said total requirement of the State was 17,000 MW while availability was 18,500 MW- in surplus. He said basics power supply were being laid as power infrastructure was in a bad shape with villages not connected with power lines and transformers not functioning to the capacity.
“In two years UP will be turned in an ideal State,” claimed the Minister, saying that each Minister in State had been allocated two districts, besides his home strict, to look after the implementation of Central and State schemes. Sharma, who was on his way to Bijnore to attend a meeting of officials and oversee the implementation of development of schemes in the district, said he would attend the ‘International Yoga Day’ in the district on Wednesday. It is mandatory for each State Minister to visit the two districts of which he is ‘Prabhari’ every month, receive feed back and report to the Chief Minister.
Giving an example of “governance paralysis” in the previous SP Government, Sharma said it did not spend a single rupee from the Rs10,000 crore allocated to it by the Centre for ‘Awas Yojana’.