24-hour power to VIP districts in Uttar Pradesh upsets court

Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh power department today submitted a schedule before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on power being supplied to 'VIP' districts.

The power department informed the court that six districts - Kannauj, Etawah, Mainpuri, Rampur, Amethi and Rae Bareli - had uninterrupted power supply because of frequent VIP visits.

This was done after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by lawyer Ashok Pandey. In the petition, Mr Pandey stated that six districts in the state enjoyed 24-hour uninterrupted power supply unlike the situation in the rest of the state. The petitioner had prayed that uninterrupted supply to the VIP districts should be withdrawn and it should be at par with other districts.

The two-judge bench of Justice Amitav Lala and Justice Anil Kumar said that the supply to VIP districts was "disturbing" and the Power Department should submit an affidavit in the court stating the reasons for 24-hour power supply to these districts. The affidavit has to be filed by September 20.

The six districts include Rae Bareli and Amethi, constituencies of Sonia and Rahul Gandhi. Also in that list, the districts of Mainpur and Etawah that fall in the Yadav bastion, Kannauj which is Dimple Yadav's constituency and Rampur, the constituency of senior minister Azam Khan.

Amethi and Rae Bareli recently joined this list of VIP districts after Congress president Sonia Gandhi reached out to Mulayam Singh asking her for improving power supply.

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