Akhilesh gets feel of power crisis in surprise inspection

Lucknow, June 4 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav Wednesday got a first hand taste of the grim power scenario in the state during a surprise inspection at Shravasti on the sprawling state’s border with Nepal.

On an inspection to Bharthapur, the villagers told Akhilesh Yadav that the village got barely one hour of electricity in the whole day. Holding an informal ‘chaupal’ in the village, the 41-year-old chief minster sweated and was fanned by villagers as he listened to their problems.

Pushed to the wall on the poor power scenario in the state and failing law and order, he was flooded with complaints after which he ordered suspension of six district officials including the chief medical officer and the executive engineer (power). He also ordered transfer of the district magistrate and issued a warning to the district police chief.

The chief minister checked for himself development in the village on various indices and found officials wanting on almost all of them. Those suspended with immediate effect included chief medical officer R.P. Gupta, executive engineer (power) Vinay Kumar, district supply officer Sanjeev Kumar, deputy agriculture director Shivdutt Tiwari, executive engineer (RES) Vijay Kumar Dubey and district mining official Ram Kumar Tantua.

After the rout of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in the Lok Sabha election recently, the chief minister’s office had chalked out a surprise inspection plan and Akhilesh Yadav, as per the scheduled programme, had to go to Hamirpur but instead reached Shravasti.