District centres to get 24-hour power supply, villages 18 hours: UP CM

Lucknow: After successfully providing uninterrupted 24-hour power supply at all the 'shaktipeeths' during Navratri recently, UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday ordered 18-hour power supply in villages and 20-hour at tehsil level and in Bundelkhand region.

A meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Adityanath, the second since he assumed office last month, also decided that district headquarters will get 24-hour power supply, Power Minister Shrikant Sharma told mediapersons here after the three-hour-long meeting.

The chief minister directed the power department to ensure that defective or burnt transformers should be replaced expeditously in rural areas so that agricultural operations do not suffer, he said.

Sharma said the ambitious 'Power for All' pact will be signed by Adityanath and Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on April 14 to meet the Centre's target of making the state energy efficient by 2018.

"It was the order of the Chief Minister that all Shaktipeeths are supplied 24-hour power during Navratris and we have been successful in it...examinations are on and students should get power during the night so that they do not have to suffer," Sharma said.

The CM directed the officials to ensure uninterrupted supply to the villages from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning so as to help the students prepare for exams.

"It is the dream of BJP chief Amit Shah and the Chief Minister that every house, every poor, and every village get power by 2018," Sharma said.