No UP village will remain in dark after April 1: Shrikant
LUCKNOW : No village in Uttar Pradesh will remain in the dark after sunset from April 1, energy minister Shrikant Sharma said on Saturday.
He was speaking at the conclave ‘Vikas ke Path Par Uttar Pradesh’ (UP on the road to development) organised by Hindustan and Hindustan Times.
Sharing further details, the minister said augmentation work was going on and “we will ensure no village sleeps in the dark”.
“When you travel, you will be come to know where Uttar Pradesh has started as there will be light in villages across the state,” said Sharma, who is also the state government’s spokesperson.
There will be no power cut in 17 nagar nigam areas as these will have ‘no tripping zones’, for which work was in progress, he added.
He said electricity had reached 98 lakh houses where it was not available under the previous governments.
“Pehle Uttar Pradesh mein bijli ati nahin thi ab jati nahi hai,” (earlier electricity was not available in Uttar Pradesh now it does not disappear from the state),” he said in reply to a query.
Asked about the opposition’s remarks on the recent shoefight between a party MP and MLA, medical education minister Ashutosh Tandon said it was a sad incident that should not have happened.
“It was a person’s fault and it should not sully the party’s image,” said Tandon.
Shrikant Sharma added: “The opposition is jobless since 2014. We are not paying them unemployment allowance. Hence, it is obvious that they will take us on with baseless issues like asking proof even for what the army has done against Pakistan, for which we should respect them (army).”
“They (opposition) tried to make an issue out of the Uri incident, Abhinandan’s return to India and other efforts by the prime minister to give a befitting reply to terror,” he said.
“Why no answer was given after the Mumbai attack,” he asked.
Asked about the SP-BSP coming together for the Lok Sabha elections, Sharma said they had done so as they knew it would not be possible for them to counter the development work done by prime minister Modi.
Ashutosh Tandon spoke about how the state was increasing the number of medical colleges from 13 to 26 so that more doctors could be appointed at hospitals to serve the people.