Contesting the claims of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav that Samajwadi Party government was supplying providing 20 hour power in UP, Union Power minister Piyush Goyal said that how can a state supply that much power when it does not have enough in its bank.
“The UP Chief Minister’s claim is false. This is a fact that the state government does not have enough power in its kitty. Hence, supplying power to villages for 20 hours is nothing but a political gossip,” Goyal told ‘The Pioneer’ in lucknow on Friday.
The Union minister said that if UP wanted, it could have supplied electricity for 24 hours. “The Central Pool has surplus power but UP has never asked for it. Even today, we are ready to give power to UP, but the request should come from the state,” he said.
In fact, UP has been complaining that the Centre has not released power as per its quota and requirement. The CM has claimed that the state government has written several times to the Centre for releasing power but was yet to get a response from the Centre.
Goyal said: “Please do not go by what I am saying or what the state is saying. Compare the figures and judge for yourself as how much power UP has asked for and what is the Centre’s share.”
He said that power from the Central Pool is available at Rs 3.08 per unit while UP sells electricity to its consumers at around Rs 5 per unit. “This can be a profit proposition for UP government to get electricity at Rs 3 from us and sell it off at Rs 5 to consumers. But this will work only if power theft and transmission losses are minimized,” he said.
The Union Power minister said that many states like Rajasthan, Telangana, Kerala, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh have gone power surplus in the last year and a half. “If UP can plug its losses, it can also become power surplus,” he said.
When asked about UP polls, Goyal said that the BJP will get over 300 seats for sure. “After demonetisation, I had carried out a survey in UP which showed that our party would get 360 plus seats. There is a hype in favour of the BJP and we can say that party will get over 300 seats,” he said.