RAJ SHEKHAR SHIFTED, SATYENDRA IS LUCKNOW’S NEW DM
In a major reshuffle, the state government on Friday shifted 21 IAS, including nine district magistrates, and 83 PCS officers here on Friday. LDA vice chairman Satyendra Singh takes over as the new DM of Lucknow from Raj Shekhar, who has been moved in the same capacity to Bareilly. Anup Kumar Yadav, director Mandi Parishad, becomes the new LDA VC. PK Mohanti, who was waitlisted, has been made principal secretary, Animal Husbandry, while Mukul Singhal, principal secretary, Sericulture, Handloom and Textile, has been given the additional charge of Planning Department also. With the voters’ list revision work scheduled to commence from September 1, all district magistrates in Uttar Pradesh would come under the jurisdiction of Election Commission of India (ECI).
The Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd (DVVNL), a state-owned company, has claimed that it did no false reporting on the Nagla Fatela village in Hathras district.
The village was mentioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day speech. Thereafter, a controversy arose amid claims and counter-claims about the status of electrification in the hamlet.
The DVVNL has categorically told the Centre that the village was already electrified from the old infrastructure with 80 households having electricity connections when a detailed project report (DPR) was prepared to include the same village under the fresh electrification programme.
In a point-by-point reply to a clarification sought by the centre’s Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), DVVNL managing director SVS Rathore has put the blame on the consultant as well as the REC itself for much of the mess on the electrification status of the village.
The nondescript village had got instant fame after the PM in his Independence Day speech made its mention saying that for electricity it took 70 long years after Independence to reach Nagla Fatela. But contrary to the MP’s announcement, the village had not got electricity by then from the new infrastructure that had been ready for last eight months. It was only after the PM’s mention that the new infrastructure was energised swiftly.
The village, however, stood duly electrified as per the old definition of rural electrification. Over 120 households were legally drawing power by tapping the distribution lines meant for tube wells. They were paying bills too.
At serial no. 34, it was stated that infrastructure of Nagla Fatela is ‘completed. Since the said village was already electrified from the old infrastructure, it had been mentioned under ‘unelectrified villages electrified as on September 30, 2015 SVS RATHORE, DVVNL managing director
Following an embarrassment to the PM for ‘misreporting’ of facts, the REC had on August 17 issued a notice to the DVVNL asking it to clarify as to why the village had been shown as unelectrified in the DPR prepared for the electrification of 1285 villages under the Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Vidyutikaran Yojana even when it already had several domestic power connections. It also asked the discom to explain as to why the village was reported to be electrified before the electricity actually flowed in the village’s new infrastructure.
“A total 82 households connections were in existence at the time of preparation of the DPR,” Rathore said, adding, “But the consultant for the project M/s ERDA had not accepted the said households connections since as per the MoP’s new definition of village electrification, that came into existence in 2004-05. The consultant, therefore, proposed fresh electrification of the village.”
Rathore further informed the REC that progress of unelectrified village was communicated to it through –email dated 01-10-2015. “At serial no. 34, it was stated that infrastructure of Nagla Fatela is ‘completed. Since the said village was already electrified from the old infrastructure, it had been mentioned under ‘unelectrified villages electrified as on September 30, 2015,” he pointed out.
As to why the village was reported to be electrified if the new infrastructure had not been charged, the Agra discom MD explained that there was no misreporting in this regard because what was reported was that the new power infrastructure was ready and the village was electrified while the energisation work was still pending.
Energisation means actual flow of electricity in the distribution lines and transformers.
“It is also to be mentioned that the union power ministry’s GARV App on which the village was shown to have been electrified is maintained by the REC and the field data is collected and provided by its staff only,” he said.
The PM, a PIB press note said, had announced the village has having got electricity from new infrastructure by seeking the status on the GARV App only.
Rathore told the REC that since the new infrastructure had been energised now, the old infrastructure would be dismantled and all the existing connections would be connected to the new distribution lines.