Reacting to Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi’s statement in Jagdishpur on Sunday that the state government was responsible for severe power crisis in UP, Maywati on Tuesday sprang to defend her government and stated that the Centre is not serious towards the problems being faced by the people here. She also accused the Centre of not cooperating with the state in solving the power crisis and stated that this was the reason why it has still not taken any initiative on the state government’s request for a Rs 80,000-crore package.
She alleged that the state had not been getting enough electricity from the Central power projects since 1980 and added that of the 4,000MW capacity eight ultra mega power projects, none was proposed in Uttar Pradesh. There was an urgent need for such a mega power project in the state which gets 50% to 60% power through them, she said.
Mayawati said the state had been deprived of its due share as under the Rihand and Singrauli projects of NTPC, which had started way back in 1980, Uttar Pradesh was getting merely 35% electricity.
Stating that the Centre was adopting a discriminatory attitude towards UP regarding allocation of power, Mayawati said that she had written a letter to the Prime Minister in this regard.