Shinde seeks reports on power cuts in Rae Bareli

Lucknow, June 14 (UNI) Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde today sought a report from Uttar Pradesh power officials on allegations of non-availability of 24 hour power supply to AICC president Sonia Gandhi's parliamentary constituency of Rae Bareli.

Talking to reporters here after returning from Rae Bareli and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's constituency of Amethi, Mr Shinde said people had complained that they were not getting power on a 24 hour basis after the May 11 Lok Sabha bypoll in which Ms Gandhi won by a landslide margin. ''I was told that Rae Bareli was getting 24 hrs of power supply before elections.'' The power minister said he had asked officials of UP power department to send him a report in this regard. He, however, set no deadline for submission of the report.

UP government had recently delisted Rae Bareli from the group of districts getting uninterrupted power supply. Congress had alleged that Rae Bareli was being ''punished'' for the defeat of SP candidate Raj Kumar Chaudhury in the bypolls. ''Except for Ms Gandhi, the security deposit of all the candidates were forfeited. This is the reason behind delisting Rae Bareli,'' Congress had alleged.

But a few days ago, Rae Bareli was once again included in the list of districts, which get 24 hrs power supply. A letter to this effect was received by district magistrate Jitendra Kumar.

To a poser, Mr Shinde refuted the allegation of UP that the central sector was not providing the state with sufficient power.

''In fact, UP is getting the maximum share of power -- 4000 MW -- as compared to rest of India.'' He claimed while UP had an installed capacity of 5000 MW, its plant load factor (PLF) was a mere 55 per cent. ''If they increase PLF to 75 per cent, UP could generate an additional 1000 Mw power,'' he pointed out.

The union minister also denied allegations that the Centre was being partial to UP's power needs and that the centre was not following the 'Gadgil Formula'.

''The Formula is applied to the entire country. UP should explicitly tell where we have violated the prescribed formula for power distribution,'' he maintained.

He said the installation of power projects at Tehri (Uttranchal), Tala (Bhutan) and Unchahar unit 5 (UP), would help UP get more power in the coming days.

Mr Shinde said after UP agreed to provide water for Delhi's parched Sonia Vihar plant, he managed to get the state 50 Mw power.

''We took power in bits and pieces from various states to provide UP with an aditional 50 Mw,'' he claimed.

Meanwhile, Mr Shinde said the Centre has not received any request from the Uttar Pradesh government yet to install one of the five mega power projects to be set up across the country.

Earlier, the number of projects were five. But now the number has been increased to seven as more states have pitched in with request to install the project in their area.

Chattisgarh, Orissa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh have forwarded requests for the 4,000 Mw mega power project. Each project would cost Rs 16,000 crore.

The minister said open tenders would be floated with regards to the projects.

UNI NAB VS MSJ RS1932