PIL seeks to scrap regular power supply to UP's pampered districts

A PIL filed by an advocate before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Wednesday questioned the supply of uninterrupted power to some VIP districts in Uttar Pradesh, while other parts of the state continued to reel under massive power cuts.

Taking cognisance of the public interest litigation, the court has issued notices to the government and sought the roster of power supply to the districts by next Monday.

The petitioner submitted that round-the-clock power supply to a few districts, including the Lok Sabha constituencies of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and party general secretary Rahul Gandhi, was tantamount to discriminating against the other districts.

He urged the court to order the UP government to treat all the districts equally and scrap the orders for uninterrupted power supply to six districts.

Currently, Raebareli,  Amethi, SP chief Mulayam Singh’s home district Etawah,  his Lok Sabha constituency Mainpuri, daughter-in-law Dimple Yadav’s Lok Sabha constituency Kannauj and UP minister Azam Khan’s assembly constituency Rampur have been exempted from power cuts.

Only recently, the government exempted Amethi and Raebareli from power cuts after Sonia Gandhi reportedly requested Mulayam Singh Yadav to spare their constituencies.

UP has been witnessing massive shortage in power generation and demand and supply gap of power has widened to such an extent that large parts of the state have to go without electricity for hours together.