The poll for the seat of power in Uttar Pradesh was fought on several agendas, one of the key ones being power. The ruling BJP had, in its poll manifesto, promised 24-hour power supply. But this delivery will be on the shoulders of its debt-ridden distribution companies (discoms), beleaguered system and years of distorted tariff structure. Shrikant Sharma, the state's power minister, is, however, a confident man. In an interview with Archis Mohan and Shreya Jai, he lists out various steps the new government would take to ensure the PM’s commitment to UP.
Uttar Pradesh recently signed the ‘Power for All’ agreement with the Centre. What are its salient features?
The past government, due to its own political motives, did not sign it but we went ahead with it as we want to give cheaper power to consumers. We currently have 16,500 Mw of power availability, but during peak hours, demand rises to 17,500 Mw or more. To start with, we are now a part of the central pool to procure power through medium-term agreements. We would participate in the bidding on the Discovery of Efficient Electricity Price (DEEP) portal. The benefit would be passed on to the consumers. It is the PM’s vision that the state should have 24 hours power by 2019 and every village and farm in the country should get power at cheap rates. To fulfil this commitment, CM Adityanath Yogiji is working in mission mode.
Our effort is to weed out all shortcomings in that process and provide all possible comfort and facilities to the consumers. This is why we have come up with One Time Settlement (OTS) scheme. Under this scheme, we have waived surcharge of both rural and urban consumer. For the first time, we have included small scale industries and offered them to pay their dues in one go and they will be given 50 per cent waiver in their surcharge. Under this programme, we have asked all those with illegal connection or, they have been given a window to get it legalised.
After OTS our next program would be on energy theft. No one would go scot free. There would be a provision of jail term for 5 years for those to steal power and there would 75 police stations for the same. No special status for MP or minister would be considered. We would publicly display the names of those who steal power. Consumers have been given the option to pay their past dues in instalments.
UP discoms have some of the highest cumulative debts in the country. You are offering subsidy at a time when the debt is under restructuring and future financing is uncertain. How feasible is this model then?
Our power department has losses to the tune of Rs 15,000 crore. We want to fix this but energy theft is a big issue. The biggest hurdle between the power department, the honest consumer and 24 hours power supply is energy theft. Our primary objective is to stop energy theft. I am confident that we will be able to do it without any additional burden of higher tariff on honest consumers. We will give 24 hours power supply by weeding out energy theft. Yogiji said whichever feeder has no energy theft and gives robust revenues will be rewarded with 24 hours power supply before time. We have started 24 hours power supply in 74 feeders. So this would be a campaign for honesty in the system. Self-monitoring also kicks in.
What all is being done to improve operations of discoms?
If we finish corruption, stop theft completely then it would eventually lead to bringing down of losses. That is why we want to end man to man connect as much as we can and go digital. So we will go completely online with all operations. From, bill payment to request for connection or load change – all will be online. We want to introduce a trust bill. If you don’t get a bill, you click the photo of your meter and submit your bill. We are building trust with the consumer. We hope that the honesty that prevails in this government will percolate among the consumers also.
Apart from the losses faced by the power department, UP is also procuring costly power through long-term agreements. How will that be tackled to reduce the cost for the consumer?
In the past 15 years, a lot of gaps have been created by the past government and our primary objective is to fill them. We have to fix the shabby system that was in existence till yet. We have decided a roaster for power supply – 18 hours to villages, 20 hours to tehsils, Bundelkhand area and 24 hours to district headquarters. This roaster was also introduced by Akhilesh Yadav but he could execute it as his VIP areas were restricted to Azamgarh or Saifai. For us, the consumer is the VIP. Whatever they did, they were punished by the consumers. We believe in- upbhogta devo bhava (Consumer is God).
But you would have to mind the health of the discoms as well along with rationalising power tariff.
We are currently looking at short-term measures to give some instant relief. Consumers should trust that the government would provide him 24 hours power supply, only then he will join hands with us. For the past 15 years, only the honest consumers were harassed – they were paying bills but were not getting electricity and also state was incurring losses.
For industries, what are your proposals especially when they are battling high tariffs in the state?
We want to give 24 hours of power supply. We are designing a new policy for assisting the industries– Udyog Niti. It is under discussion and we are working on it.
Like the previous government's Udyog Mitra?
It was only on paper. Ours is to provide facilitation to the industry and build trust among them for the government.
What is the progress under IPDS & DDUGJY?
We found a lot of corruption cases even in these. We have kept the goal of electrifying 25,000 villages in 100 days. We have kept a target of giving 500,000 connections, metering them. There are still 184,000 households where we have to take electricity. There are up to 6.8 million families where meters have not reached despite having a connection. Never the department has worked honestly to provide electricity to the consumers and function economically.
How will you ensure household electrification?
We recently awarded a Gram Pradhan who achieved 100 per cent electrification in his village. Everyone would be metered. We will bring Prepaid Meters also. Our scheme is that the way one gets mobile connection, you will get electricity connection. There would be no harassment of consumers and they would be advised. We are giving 10,000 free solar run agriculture pumps from which the government would purchase surplus power, if any.
The amount of subsidy and free pumps, etc. that you are giving would need a higher budgetary allocation.
That all is being taken care of. Electricity is a fundamental right. Even after 60 years of independence, villages don’t get electricity. A lot of money was being spent on random things, why was not on electricity? We can’t even light a bulb in the house of a poor, till now? Like education is fundamental right so should be electricity.