After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lok Sabha constituency was hit by the Uttar Pradesh’s ever growing power crisis, the war of words between the Centre and the State Government escalated on Friday.
With Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday once again blaming the Centre for not supplying full quota of electricity to UP, Union Minister of State for Power Piyush Goyal said the State was free to purchase as much power as it needed.At the same time, Union Minister Gen VK Singh raised the problem of long power cuts and load-shedding in Uttar Pradesh, including the constituency represented by the Prime Minister and asked Power Ministry to convene a meeting with the State Government to solve the problem.
“I am representing Ghaziabad in UP. For the last four days, I have been receiving complaints about load-shedding or interrupted power supply for long hours. There are reports that even in Varanasi, which is represented by the Prime Minister, people are deprived in respect of power availability,” Singh, who is lS member from Ghaziabad, said in a letter to Power Minister Piyush Goyal.
Akhilesh had been asking the Centre to provide the State’s full quota of 6,082 MW of power from the Central sector claiming UP was getting just 4,402 MW. “If the Centre gives us entire quota then the State Government would increase the power availability in the rural areas from 12 to 14 hours immediately,” Yadav said.
However, Goel said in Delhi, “The Uttar Pradesh Government had been purchasing full quota of electricity from Jhajhar till a few days back. What is preventing the UP Government to purchase its quota of electricity nowIJ The honourable Chief Minister of UP is free to utilise his quota. The Centre is ready to allocate that.”
Goles’s plainspeak forced Akhilesh to take a divergent stand, and this time he blamed Centre for not giving enough coal to run thermal stations. “I have asked the Centre to allot more coal blocks to the State and its thermal power units for generation electricity in full strength,” he told reporters.The State Government has also sent a letter to the Union Government saying coal supply to the thermal power station in the State is erratic leading to low generation in the thermal power stations.
“If the Centre supplies us full quota of coal the State thermal units would generate enough electricity to meet the demand,” he said in the letter.
The UP Government at present is purchasing power worth over Rs 15 crore daily from the private companies to meet its power demand. At present against the demand of 11,800 MW of power in the State, the UP Government was supplying 11,572 MW. As per the schedule, the villages and tehsils are getting 12 hour electricity, the smaller towns 15 hours, divisional headquarters 19 hours and big cities 20 hours daily.
The State Government had gone for an agreement to purchase 1,000 MW from western States but due to overloading on the western grid, the power could not be brought to UP.