Amid protests by power employees, Uttar Pradesh government on Saturday said that power distribution system in four cities would be handed over to private sector.
"By the end of this year, power distribution system in Kanpur, Meerut, Varanasi and Ghaziabad will be transferred to private sector," UP's Food and Civil Supplies Minister and SP spokesman Rajendra Chaudhary said in a statement issued in Lucknow.
The statement evoked sharp response from the convener of UP Power Employees Action Committee, Shailendra Dubey.
"Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav also holds the charge of power department. He should immediately give a clarification on Chaudhary's statement otherwise the power employees will launch an agitation for which the government will be responsible," Dubey said. Experiment of privatisation had failed in Agra where there was loss of Rs 400 crore every year, he said.
In such a situation privatisation is not in the interest of the state, besides the government had given a written assurance that it will not go for privatisation, Dubey said.
Meanwhile, opposing the statement, BJP's chief spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak questioned the reasons due to which SP government was going ahead with the proposal of privatisation mooted by the previous Mayawati led BSP government.
Cities where privatisation of distribution system was being talked about, the government was getting good revenue, he said.
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