Centre gets into power war with UP in poll season

Irregularities and religious discrimination, says Centre; old case and action taken, says UP govt

A political controversy has arisen on rural electrification in Uttar Pradesh (UP), with a probe for Moradabad district revealing that power connections were given outside the contractor’s scope of work.

The Centre is alleging inaction by state authorities; the latter say the matter is old and “closed”. The case dates back to July 2016 and has been dug out again, with the Centre and state hurling charges of communal polarisation at each other.

The Union power ministry has alleged religious discrimination. A probe committee of the Centre has concluded there was “discrimination on religious grounds, while implementing the scheme”. Besides, the quality of work was bad and villagers, including those below the poverty line (BPL), were charged money, said the report as reviewed by Business Standard.

Senior officials in the UP government, however, said the probe report found mismanagement in the connections given to BPL households and not any community in particular. “The contractor did not follow the project alignment and went beyond the scope of the project design. To avail subsidised connections, a household needs to prove its BPL status. The contractor gave connections to those without any BPL proof,” said an official, adding the matter has long being closed. ‘

Piyush Goyal, Union minister for power, recently said the central government initiated the probe in Moradabad district over charges of discrimination in power supply to village households by state authorities. He said the probe team found one community was provided power connections; those of another community were ignored. “The Centre proposed that an FIR (police case) be filed against officials behind the deliberate exclusion. The state government is yet to respond,” Goyal was reported telling news channels on Monday.

State government officials, however, maintain that necessary action was taken by the power distribution company of that area, six months earlier. The turnkey contractor for the district is IL&FS Engineering and Construction, awarded the contract in 2014. IL&FS did not respond to queries sent by Business Standard, till the time of going for print. 

Officials in the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) did not comment, citing the code of conduct in Uttar Pradesh during the ongoing Assembly election.
 

The matter came to the fore in March 2016, after a Bharatiya Janata Party member of Parliament, Sarvesh Kumar, wrote to the prime minister’s office, the power ministry and Paschimanchal Vidyut Vitran Nigam (PVVNL), one of the five power distribution companies (discoms) in UP.

He alleged the turnkey contractor had resorted to several irregularities in giving connections to rural households in the district. Money was taken for connections and there was community discrimination, said sources with a copy of the letter.

After getting no response, Kumar wrote again in April and May. In July, the ministry of power through the REC ordered a probe into eight villages of Moradabad district. The committee comprised representatives from the discom, REC-appointed quality monitors, third-party inspection agencies appointed by PVVNL and officials of the turnkey contractor. 

REC’s then chairman, Rajeev Sharma, wrote to PVVNL that he “recommended” an FIR be registered against the turnkey contractor, it should be blacklisted and “no payment should be made to them”. The letter was reviewed by Business Standard.

Officials in the state power department said three FIRs were registered in July against IL&FS, on charges of “doing work beyond their scope and misutilisation of government’s fund and its executives were also booked under the same charges”.

“The contractor has not been disbursed any payment since July 2016 and work is moving slow. IL&FS still holds the contract but REC has not disbursed any amount for the past eight months. We just followed the recommendations of REC,” said an official in PVVNL. This Monday, the ruling Samajwadi Party in UP issued a statement rejecting Goyal’s charges. “It’s a poll-time gimmick by the Bharatiya Janata Party to polarise votes by targeting on a particular community,” a party spokesperson said.