Lucknow: After successfully providing uninterrupted 24-hour power supply at all the 'shaktipeeths' during Navratri recently, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday ordered 18-hour power supply in villages and 20-hour at tehsil level and in Bundelkhand region.
A meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Adityanath, the second since he assumed office last month, also decided that district headquarters will get 24-hour power supply, Power Minister Shrikant Sharma told mediapersons here after the three-hour-long meeting.
The Chief Minister directed the power department to ensure that defective or burnt transformers should be replaced expeditously in rural areas so that agricultural operations do not suffer, he said.
Sharma said the ambitious 'Power for All' pact will be signed by Adityanath and Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on April 14 to meet the Centre's target of making the state energy efficient by 2018.
"It was the order of the Chief Minister that all Shaktipeeths are supplied 24-hour power during Navratris and we have been successful in it...Examinations are on and students should get power during the night so that they do not have to suffer," Sharma said.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to ensure uninterrupted supply to the villages from 6 in the evening to 6 in the morning so as to help the students prepare for exams.
"It is the dream of BJP chief Amit Shah and the Chief Minister that every house, every poor, and every village get power by 2018," Sharma said.
The second meeting of the Yogi Cabinet was held nearly a week after the newly-appointed Uttar Pradesh government gave its approval on the farm loan waiver scheme and decided to procure almost entire wheat produce of farmers at the minimum support price (MSP) this season.
The farm loan waiver scheme will benefit around 2.15 crore small and marginalised farmers in Uttar Pradesh.
During today's meeting, the Yogi Cabinet decided to buy the potato produce of farmers at the rate of Rs 487 per quintal. The potato procurement would start immediately.
The Cabinet also gave its approval to the proposal to make the entire roads of the state pothole free by June 15, reports said.
Among other decisions, the Yogi Cabinet approved the electricity sharing proposal with the Centre.
As per new decision, the electricity department would have to replace non-working transformers within 48 hours, instead of the previous deadline of 72 hours.
In the first meeting Yogi Adityanath took a series of decisions, including the loan waiver for farmers of the state. In his brief tenure so far, Adityanath has made it clear he will take bold yet calculated steps.
The Cabinet also reviewed the performance of anti-Romeo squads, which were set up across the state to save girls from harassment. .
CM Adityanath had earlier formed a committee of ministers, which will visit different states to study their industrial policies
Meanwhile, key developmental projects of the previous Samajwadi Party and BSP governments have come under the scanner of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who has ordered several probes to ascertain if funds were misused.
