Communal politics in UP power supply: Goyal

Union power minister Piyush Goyal Wednesday accused the Akhilesh Yadav-led state government of providing power connections to members of “one community”.

Mr Goyal said the issue was raised by BJP’s Moradabad MP Sarvesh Kumar Singh, who said the SP government was giving power connections to people from a “particular community” and denying it to others in some areas of his constituency.

When the state government was asked for a report, it denied discrimination, but the MP then approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Mr Modi then directed the Union power ministry to send a high-level committee to investigate.

“The committee in its report said there were several areas in Moradabad where there was discrimination in giving power connections... This is a serious problem,” Mr Goyal said.

He said many other public representatives made similar complaints about their areas facing such problems in Uttar Pradesh.

Responding to a poser on the power situation in Varanasi, Mr Goyal said data provided by an NGO, which monitors 300 towns and cities, shows that several areas in the Prime Minister’s constituency face eight- to 10-hour-long power cuts.

Earlier, Mr Modi had accused the UP government of discriminating in power supply on religious grounds.