Centre accuses UP CM of politicising power crisis in state

Accusing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav of attempting to politicise the electricity crisis in the state by making baseless allegations, Power Minister Piyush Goyal today said the shortage had arisen as the state stopped buying 377 MW of power from NTPC's Jhajjar plant.
Goyal, who was responding to a Private Member's resolution in the Rajya Sabha, said in May when Uttar Pradesh was facing shortage of electricity, he had tried to call Yadav at least thrice and left a message that the Centre was keen to help.
The Chief Minister, however, tried to politicise the matter and made baseless allegations against the Centre, the Power Minister claimed.

Goyal said even after UP stopped purchasing 377 MW, the government kept it unallocated.
He claimed that later when the state government wrote a letter seeking power, the Centre provided these 377 MW within a couple of hours.
Goyal, however, said that UP government again stopped purchasing this power. He said that he did not wish to politicise the matter.
His remark came after BSP member Narendra Kumar Kashyap said that while the UP government had been claiming that it had given money yet it had not been provided electricity while the Centre kept saying that no money had been paid by UP.

SP member Choudhary Munnawar Hussain rose in Yadav's defence and said he did not politicise the issue and claimed that the Power Minister was rather doing so.