Rae Bareli put on power rostering list

Lucknow, May 14: The Uttar Pradesh government's decision to put the high profile district of Rae Bareli on the list of power rostering has been termed as ''politics of vendetta''by the Congress after its party president Sonia Gandhi won the Lok Sabha byelection by a record margin of over 4 lakh votes.

A decision was taken on Friday to delist the constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi from the VIP category which ensured 24-hour power supply to Rae Bareli district.

Congress was fast to hit back, terming it a frustration on part of the Samajwadi Party-led government after Ms Gandhi scored a record victory from the constituency where the other 15 candidates in the fray lost their security deposits.

Rostering has already begun. Rae Bareli is the only district that has been deprived of the VIP status for the purpose of power supply while many other districts continue to enjoy 24 hours of power.

While there was a strong resentment among local Congress leaders, the SP leadership justified the decision claiming the Centre was giving more power to smaller states than the power being supplied to Uttar Pradesh.

UPCC president Salman Khurshid flayed the state government for the decision alleging Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was known for pursuing politics of vendetta. Mr Khurshid said the SP-led government was obviously upset about the defeat of its candidate in the bypoll.

He also termed the SP's charges that the Centre was not cooperating as baseless. The Centre was giving nearly 25 per cent of available power to Uttar Pradesh, added Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Pramod Tiwari.

''The Centre was actually giving about 16 to 25 per cent more power to UP than its quota, but UP is putting all the blame on the Congress government at the Centre for the crisis... Northern grid is giving power to the tune of 3,897-4014 Mw to UP from time to time,'' Mr Tiwari claimed.

Claiming the power crisis was only due to the inefficiency of the state government, Mr Tiwari said the Plant Load Factor (PLF) of the thermal and hydro power plant is only about 55 per cent, which is less than the national average.

''Under the APDRP scheme, the centre has given Rs 1091.30 crore for strengthening the transmission and distribution network, but UP could utilise only Rs 345.62 crore in the last three years.''

UNI