Overview

• The Samajwadi Party chief said the BJP government has ruined Uttar Pradesh's power system with frequent outages and rising electricity charges.
• He cited 1.74 lakh applications for new connections received between September 10 and October 6, with 37,043 cases still pending.
• Yadav alleged the UP Power Corporation has made prepaid smart meters compulsory for new connections despite provisions allowing a choice between prepaid and postpaid under the Electricity Act, 2003.
• He noted that the State Power Consumer Parishad/Electricity Consumer Council has sought refunds of money collected from applicants until a decision on smart prepaid meters is made.
• He claimed connection costs have jumped sharply, including for poor households from about ₹1,000 to ₹6,000 and for a 1 kW rural connection from ₹1,172 to ₹6,216, and said outages are hurting small businesses and investment.