When it comes to defining Centre-state relations in Uttar Pradesh, ?powerplay? seems to be the key deciding factor. And nothing illustrates this better than the power sector itself. During the 3-1/2-year-rule of the previous Mulayam Singh Yadav-led government, power was a major bone of contention.
The story continues with the newly elected Mayawati government charging the Centre of depriving it of power. Once again, almost on the same pattern as during Mulayam Singh?s reign, energy minister Sushilkumar Shinde has rubbished the allegations, saying that the state must own up its responsibility of ensuring adequate power, as it was a state subject. The allegations and counter-allegations seem to get shriller.
The controversy was kicked off last month by Rahul Gandhi, MP from Amethi, when he expressed concern over the dismal power situation in UP during a visit to his constituency. A day later, chief minister Mayawati sprang to defend her government and blamed the Centre for its discriminatory attitude towards the state.
That UP is a power-starved state is a fact. While its demand shoots up to 7,000 mw during peak hours, its generation capacity is only 2,500 mw. Though it borrows roughly 3,000 mw from the central pool, there is still a shortage of nearly 1,500-2,000 mw. It is this gap that is bothering the state government. Fearing that frequent power cuts may erode its popularity, the state government has alleged that the Centre was not cooperating. ?That is the reason why it (Centre) has still not taken any initiative on our request for a Rs 80,000-crore package, out of which Rs 6,800 crore was meant for fulfilling the state?s energy provisions,? said a senior energy department official. ?That is also why not even one of the eight ultra mega power projects envisaged by the government during the 11 Plan is in UP. Keeping in mind the size, population and need of the state, the Centre should have allocated at least one project to UP,? said Mayawati. While the states in which these projects are to be built would get 50-60% power through them, the National Thermal Power Corporation, which is running the Rihand and Singrauli projects in UP, was giving it merely 35% electricity, she added.
Dubbing the National Energy Policy as faulty, Mayawati said while UP had been given only 8% of the capacity of all central projects allocated for it, Maharashtra, which was population-wise smaller, had been allotted 20%. In a proverbial case of tit-for-tat, Shinde accused the state of trying to disturb grid discipline by overdrawing power and endangering its safety. Denying this, the state government said in November that while UP had made only 12% overdrawl, Haryana, Punjab and Uttarakhand had overdrawn 16%, 18% and 28%, respectively.
While UP has already initiated efforts to add 10,000 mw capacity during the 11th Plan period by setting up new powerhouses, the damage has already been done by successive governments? failure to set up new powerhouses in the last decade and a half, as also their inability to arrest line losses and power theft.