All not going well in power sector, says energy minister

: The Uttar Pradesh government on Wednesday assured the members in the state legislative assembly that the interests of employees will be protected if any decision is taken to go ahead with any move to privatise loss-making power sector companies in the wider public interest in the state.

Though he did not mention “privatisation”, minister for energy AK Sharma said despite the best efforts, “all is not going well in the power sector” and the needful would be done in the public interest to ensure uninterrupted, cheap and quality power supply to the people.

He was replying to a starred question of Samajwadi Party members Sachin Yadav aka Jakhai and Sangram Yadav during question hour in the state assembly.

“Anything needed would be done in the wider public interest for the progress of Uttar Pradesh’s all sections of the society, including the weaker and backward classes, and development of all geographical regions and specially ensure uninterrupted, cheap and quality power supply. The interests of employees will be protected in this process,” said Sharma.

He blamed previous non-BJP governments for the UPPCL’s heavy losses and said it had incurred losses of ₹1.42 lakh crore when the Samajwadi Party was voted out in 2017. He said the Yogi government was making efforts to bring down the losses. He said the SP government also failed to electrify about 1.5 lakh hamlets.

Sharma said the Yogi government has provided power to about 1.20 lakh hamlets and the rest will be covered soon.

The minister also said that the power tariff has not been revised in the state from 2020-2021 to 2024-2025.

The energy minister said privatisation does not necessarily lead to higher power tariffs. He gave the example of power tariffs in Noida and Agra, where the Noida Power Company Limited and Torrent Power are working, to make his point. He said per capita power consumption in U.P. was also 663 units against the all India average of 1395 units. Sangram Yadav said the minister should give a categorical reply whether the state government was going ahead with the privatisation move. At this ,speaker Satish Mahana said the minister’s reply did not rule out the privatisation move.

COST OF SUGARCANE PRODUCTION

Minister for sugarcane development and sugar mills Laxmi Narain Chaudhary informed the House that the Uttar Pradesh Council of Sugarcane Research has estimated the production cost of sugarcane to be ₹1,03,091 per acre and the average production of sugarcane was ₹340.49 quintal per acre in 2024-2025. He said the state government has decided the state advisory price of three categories of varieties of sugarcane has been fixed at ₹370 per quintal (advance), ₹360 per quintal (common and ₹355 per quintal (other). The minister was replying to a question by SP member Pankaj Malik.