Lucknow,

24 Dec (HS): On Wednesday, the fourth day of the winter session of the Uttar

Pradesh Legislative Assembly, the House began proceedings at 11 a.m. Responding

to a question from SP member Dr. Ragini regarding the electricity department,

Energy Minister AK Sharma said that our government has provided electricity to

nearly twice as many villages in Uttar Pradesh as had been electrified by 2017.

Energy

Minister AK Sharma said that the number of hamlets in the state hasn't

increased, but electricity has reached more. During their (SP) tenure, 128,000

hamlets had electricity. During our tenure, electricity reached 250,000

hamlets. Even then, I felt that some hamlets may still be without electricity,

so a budget of approximately 1,000 crore rupees has been recommended for

electrification of 20,000 hamlets. We assure the House that there won't be a

single hamlet in Uttar Pradesh without electricity. There will be electric

poles. There won't be electric wires on bamboo poles. There will be poles

everywhere. Now, what can be said about those who can't even see electricity?

Responding

to a question from SP member Anil Pradhan, Minister AK Sharma said that there

is no problem with smart meters. I have not come across any case in which any

complaint of wrong electricity bill has been proved correct. 55 lakh 62

thousand smart meters have been installed. Out of these, 53 lakh meters have

been installed after removing the old meters. No money has been taken from

them. Money is being taken only when smart meters are installed in new

connections. To check the quality of smart meters, old manual meters are also

kept installed along with five percent smart meters so that the bill can be

assessed. It was observed that no discrepancy has been found in the electricity

bills.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi