UP govt's new thrust to rural power

Lucknow, June 13 (UNI) Giving a thrust to the rural power scenario in Uttar Pradesh, besides generating employment, Chief Minister Mayawati today said that ' franchise scheme '' will be introduced in the rural areas to provide power in the villages.

'' We are introducing the ''franchise system'' in 10 districts in the first phase while rest of the districts will be covered in a phase manner'', she said.

Addressing a press conference, Ms Mayawati said the scheme will provide atleast 10,000 jobs to technically trained youths in the rural areas.

''The new system will also facilitate maintenance of rural electricity infrastructure locally and improve revenue collection from rural areas. Besides, this additional realisation will be used for increasing power supply in the rural areas'', she added.

The 10 districts where ''franchise scheme'' would be implemented in the first phase are Agra, Hathras, Mahoba, Hamirpur, Bulandshahar, Jyotiba Phole Nagar, Badaun, Rae Bareli, Pratapgarh and Santravidas Nagar.

The CM also announced that for conservation of energy CFL lamps have been made mandatory in all public offices and will also provide incentives to general public for use of CFL lamps. ''Hhowever, my government will continue to provide electricity at reasonable rates to the families of SC/ST backward classes and poor,''she said.

Ms Mayawati said that massive drives will be launched to curb power theft with DMs and SSPs leading the initiatives, use of insulated conducts, HVDS system, pre-paid metering and efficient energy audit will be ensured while rural consumers will be motivated to install meters and pay according to consumption.

UNI