Taking a serious view on power theft, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said that those villages where power pilferage was high would not get 24x7 supply. He also declared that the entire of Uttar Pradesh will be declared ‘Open Defecation Free’ (ODF) by October 2018. Addressing a function on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day in lucknow on Monday, the CM made it clear that those villages where power theft continued will not get 24-hour supply as promised by the government. “It is better that every household installs meters so that power theft could be prevented,” he said.
The UP government has declared that all the villages in UP will get 24x7 electricity by November, 2018.
“The BJP government is committed to providing quality power to its consumers. We will be able to fulfill the commitment only if transmission loss and power theft is minimum. In villages, power pilferage is high. It will be the responsibility of the Gram Panchayat to ensure that power which a particular gram sabha gets, is metered,” Yogi said in his address.
“We have ended the VIP culture in power distribution as earlier only four districts were given 24-hour supply while the rest 71 had to face problems,” Yogi said adding that now all 75 districts would get equal share and the government has decided to supply 24-hour power supply by 2018. The Chief Minister also said that the entire state would be Open Defecation Free (ODF) by October 2018. “We have set a target to declare 30 districts of the state as ODF by December 31 this year and in the entire state by October 2018,” he said while talking about national drive of Swacch Bharat Mission.
In his 45-minute address, Yogi elaborated on the blue print of UP’s development. “UP is a big responsibility and our government is committed to speeding up development across the state. We have decided to make Gram Sabha as the centre of development. Panchayats are the backbone of rural development. So our government is concentrating on development of Panchayats,” he said.
Yogi said, “The BJP government will initiate a scheme of smart villages instead of smart cities because Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants to strengthen the panchayats by providing them more funds.”
On the occasion, the Chief Minister handed over awards of Deen Dayal Upadhaya Panchayat empowerment and Nanaji Deshmukh Rashtriya Gaurav Gram Sabha to selected panchayats.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Panchayati Raj minister Narendra Singh Tomar also released a ‘Gramodaya Sankalp’ application and a magazine, which to be distributed to all panchayats of the country.
On the occasion, the Panchayati Raj Ministry also launched the You-tube channel and the digitalisation process of the Ministry.