The Uttar Pradesh government admitted in the Vidhan Sabha that the outstanding electricity bill on government departments had gone up to Rs 1,764 crore and steps were underway at government level to realise the same.
While answering a question of Mehboob Ali ( Samajwadi Party), Power Minister AK Sharma said that in the last three years financial years (2019-20 to 2021-22), the net amount of outstanding electricity bills on government departments was Rs 1,764.53 crore.
“Continuous efforts are being made to clear the dues. Deliberations have been held by the chief secretary with the principal secretaries of the departments on the mounting electricity dues and how to clear the same. Negotiations have been made with these departments at UP Power Corporation Limited level also,” the minister said.
He said the government through letters (No. 0-1/2022/E-10-162757-Dec-2022-10-10099-22-2022 dated 05.05.2022 and No 0-2/2022/E-10-1-197718/Dec-2022) had asked the departments to pay the electricity bills in a centralised form to the UPPCL.
“Payments are being made by the government departments in a timely manner,” he said.
In reply to another question of Pankaj Mallick of Rashtriya Lok Dal, the minister said that the state had enough electricity to meet its peak demand. In February this year, 13,356 megawatt of electricity was generated against the updated average demand of 13,491 MW, he said.
“On an average, 3,380 MW and 9,976 MW respectively were generated by the corporation and other contracts. In order to meet the gap between demand and availability for providing uninterrupted power supply from evening to morning, on average 244 MW (minimum 0 MW and maximum 829 MW) electricity were purchased in February,” he said.
The ministers even said that rural feeders were supplied with electricity for 10 hours a day so that tubewells could operate effectively. At present 2,390 feeders have been isolated through which villages are being supplied electricity for 18 hours or more.
He said as per the schedule, district headquarters were getting electricity for 24 to 23:30 hours, tehsils for 21:30 to 21 hours, Bundelkhand for 20 to 18:30 hours and rural areas from 18 to 17:34 hours.