24x7 power to Rae Bareli: Cong, SP vie for ‘credit’

Hardly 24 hours have elapsed since the state government ordered uninterrupted power supply to Rae Bareli and Gauriganj, and the race for taking ‘credit’ has begun between Samajwadi Party and Congress leaders in the region.

Samajwadi Party MLA Manoj Kumar Pande has claimed, in a written statement, that 24-hour power supply to Rae Bareli has been restored through the efforts his party MLAs from the district. Pande claimed that two SP MLAs from the district Ram Lal Akela and Surendra Vikram Singh met chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday in Lucknow and requested him to give 24-hour power supply to Rae Bareli city. Thereafter the chief minister ordered the power corporation CMD to ensure 24-hour power supply to Rae Bareli city and also increase power supply to rural areas.

On the other hand District Congress Committee president Uma Shanakar Mishra issued a written statement saying that the credit for 24x7 power supply to the region went to UPA chief and party president Sonia Gandhi who met Mulayam Singh Yadav in New Delhi and requested for the same.

Sources said principal secretary, energy, Anil Kumar Gupta rang up the Shakti Bhawan control room on Tuesday evening, asking it to start supplying 24-hour power to both the towns. “We issued orders for 24 hours’ supply to both Rae Bareli and Gauriganj tonight (Tuesday night),” a senior official told HT.

Meanwhile, for the first time in five years, the region has started receiving uninterrupted power supply, much to the relief of locals here. It was in December 2005 in a meeting on the grounds of local Government Intermediate college, the then chief minister Mulayam Singh had declared Rae Bareli as an ideal district and exempted it from power cuts. This arrangement worked till the BSP came to power and thereafter prolonged power cuts became a norm from May 2007.