Akhilesh promises 300 units of free power to households

Farmers will get free electricity for irrigation if SP is voted to power in upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Published on: Jan 1, 2022, 23:54:00 IST

By Pankaj Jaiswal, LUCKNOW

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Marking the start of the New Year, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday promised to provide 300 units of free electricity to households and free power to farmers for irrigation if voted to power in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh assembly polls.

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav (FILE PHOTO)

“It will be the number one promise on the Samajwadi Party manifesto,” Akhilesh said at a public meeting at the party office in Lucknow.

The promises appear similar to the ones made by the Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Goa, Punjab, and Uttarakhand, the states which are headed to the polls along with UP.

Addressing a meeting at the party office in Lucknow on Saturday, Akhilesh Yadav said that the BJP government made efforts to ruin 2021. He attacked the BJP government over tax raids in Kannauj and Kanpur.

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“I came to the conclusion that it was a snag in Digital India. Accidently, the raid revealed tonnes of cash at the house of a person who is a BJP person. And all the money that came out is not of the SP, but it might be of the BJP only,” he said.

“Anyway, forget 2021. Let’s take a New Year resolution. On coming to power, the SP government will give domestic consumers free electricity up to 300 units. Farmers will get free electricity to irrigate their fields. This will be our top promise,” the former UP chief minister said.

“This will be the first promise in the SP manifesto. And everyone knows that what SP promises, it delivers,” he said.

He also asked the party’s booth level workers to resolve that they will make SP win at their respective booths.

Last week, during his Vijay Rath Yatra in Unnao, Akhilesh had promised ₹5 lakh compensation to a cyclist in a road accident and ₹5 lakh for death in bull attack.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pankaj Jaiswal
Pankaj Jaiswal is Bureau Chief, Uttar Pradesh. He covers-analyses politics, and assists Hindustan Times reporters across the state. He has 30 years of experience in print media reporting. Based in Lucknow, he started his journalism career at a national English daily in Kanpur after graduating from Christ Church College. He joined Hindustan Times, Lucknow edition, as part of the launch team in 1997. He’s covered everything from rural distress to science, environment, wildlife, and crime. He has travelled extensively in Uttar Pradesh for rural, development, political, and election reporting. His continued interest in rural issues, rural distress, and development journalism has fetched him a handful of prestigious awards and fellowships. Pankaj is a photojournalist too. He clinched the Statesman Award for Rural Reporting—First Prize in 2009 and Third Prize in 2006—for exposing Bundelkhand’s devastating drought and distress: crop failures, farm suicides, migration, debt, and the injustice of meagre compensation cheques between Rs 10 and Rs 20 to farmers by the government from crop loss. He also has been awarded with Hindustan Times internal 'Journalist of the Month' citation over half a dozen times. His relentless reporting in Hindustan Times pulled the Bundelkhand crisis out of obscurity and forced it into the national spotlight, prompting media and government action on one of India’s most neglected regions. Over a decade, he filed hundreds of hard-hitting stories, travelling repeatedly from Lucknow deep into Bundelkhand. He also received the Special Mention KC Kulish International Award 2009. Pankaj also did long-haul political reporting on the most intense political family feud—’The Yadav Family Feud’—between 2016 and 2022.Read More