Akhilesh attacks Cong in Assembly,blames it for power crisis in UP

The CM also blamed the previous Mayawati government for the power crisis,saying it had not set up a single power generation unit in five years.

The issue generated much heat during question hour. First,BSP members walked out,accusing the government of misleading the House. Next,the BJP staged a walkout alleging that the government had failed to ensure equitable distribution of power to all regions.

Suresh Kumar Khanna,Satya Prakash Agrawal (both BJP),Rita Bahuguna Joshi and Mukesh Srinvastava (both Congress) had asked a question about the installed generation capacity,the actual generation and poor power supply. Although the CM holds the power portfolio,it was PWD Minister Shivpal Singh Yadav who gave the reply,leaving members dissatisfied.

The BSP members got angry when Shivpal Singh Yadav blamed the previous government for not making investments in the power sector and accused it of buying power at high rates,for which the state was now facing a debt of Rs 25,000 crore. He said the previous government could not add a single megawatt of generation capacity.

Angry over Shivpal’s statement,Leader of Opposition and BSP state president Swami Prasad Maurya accused the ruling SP of misleading the House. As Akhilesh rose to make an intervention,Maurya ignored him and his party walked out.

The CM said it was strange that those who raised questions over the power situation had left the House without waiting for his reply” “They feared that their corruption in the power sector may be expose”,” he said.

Akhilesh said although a number of MoUs were signed by the BSP government,not a single unit was set up. He admitted that there is a power crisis in the state,and banks had refused to give loans to power utilities. Despite this situation,his government would try to improve supply. He said his government wanted to increase power generation and revive old plants.

The CM intervened a second time when Rita Bahuguna Joshi asked some supplementaries. He accused the Congress of stalling the Dadri project and not providing coal linkages.

BJP leader Kalraj Mishra said there is a problem of mismanagement in the power sector. He suggested the government monitor distribution of available power. Later,BJP Legislature Party leader Hukum Singh led a walkout,saying that the government had not given a satisfactory reply regarding its failure to ensure proper distribution of power.