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UP: Villages with less than 15% losses to get 24-hr supply, says Energy minister
The minister said the UP government had decided to give uninterrupted power supply to villages considering the fact that the state government was facilitating setting up of village industries under its one-district, one product scheme for self-job creation.
The Uttar Pradesh government has decided to provide round the clock electricity to rural areas, where aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses are below 15%.
Villagers and village panchayats will be asked to join hands in reducing the losses.
Energy minister Shrikant Sharma made this announcement at a meeting held at Shakti Bhawan on Monday.
He directed the officials to gear up accordingly.
Sources, however, said that presently there was hardly any village which qualified the criteria. “We are already providing uninterrupted power to cities. Now, the government wants to supply 24-hour power to villages where the AT&C losses will be less than 15%,” he said while directing officials to change the depilated overhead electricity lines of such villages on a priority basis. This, the minister said, needed public participation and appealed to village panchayats and villagers to cooperate with the government in reducing line losses to make their village self-reliant in terms of power supply giving an impetus to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘self-reliance’ campaign.
The minister said the government had decided to give uninterrupted power supply to villages considering the fact that the state government was facilitating setting up of village industries under its one-district, one product scheme for self-job creation.
He asked the UPPCL to make preparations for giving 24-hour power to deserving villages. He stressed on the need for substation-wise review of schemes and revenue recovery so that each sub-station could become a self-reliant unit in itself.
The minister also asked the UPPCL to consider refund or adjustment of the money that consumers had deposited to take temporary power connection for organising events like weddings etc and the event could not be held due to coronavirus lockdown.
