LUCKNOW/ NEW DELHI/ JAIPUR: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his I-Day speech that Nagla Fatela village in Hathras (Mahamayanagar) district of Uttar Pradesh had to wait 70 years to get electricity despite being barely three hours away from the national capital, the state power corporation (UPPCL) and the Union power ministry were battling the veracity of that claim.
Senior UPPCL officials on Tuesday insisted to TOI that the village had been partly electrified as far back as 1985. The Union power ministry countered by asserting that the state had as late as 2013 itself certified the village as "unelectrified" and submitted a detailed project report (DPR) for its electrification under the 12th plan of DDUGJY-RE (Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana-Rurual Electrification). This was done through the state-level steering committee headed by the chief secretary, through a letter on November 13, 2013, the ministry said, citing the letter no. and date to buttress its point.
Power minister Piyush Goyal reiterated the same assertion in Jaipur and said the village had finally been electrified only in October 2015. The claims and counter-claims come in the context of the state going to polls early next year and all sides therefore keen on showcasing their own developmental credentials while running down those of their rivals.
UPPCL officials said the village had an energized power infrastructure since 1985. The old infrastructure included two 63 KVA and one 100 KVA transformer and around 80 connections. The new infrastructure included four 25 KVA and one 16 KVA transformer, 4.8 Kms of 11 Kv lines and 1.7 km of LT (low tension) lines, he said. He added that the lone majra (hamlet), Jehru, had approximately 200 households electrified. Countering these claims, the power ministry provided documents that showed that the Dakshinanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam Ltd (DVVNL) – which covers several districts of UP including Hathras — also wrote to the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) for including Hathras in the list of villages to be electrified in the 12th Plan.
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