What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
What TV doesn't, print can't; we deliver.
New Delhi: Free sops offered by political parties in this election season is not going down well with many in the trading class in Uttar Pradesh. Common traders are breaking down the maths of freebies offered by the Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and calling it out.
The Samajwadi Party (SP), one of the leading competitors ahead of the 2022 elections in Uttar Pradesh has promised 300 units of free electricity to every household and a free power supply to farmers for irrigation. SP chief, Akhilesh Yadav, has said that the promise of free electricity supply would be part of the party’s poll manifesto.
Last month, current UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had announced a reduction in the electricity bills for farmers by half. Commenting on Akhilesh’s announcement, CM said, “Those who are talking about free electricity had kept the state in the dark during their regime.” The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had first announced to provide 300 units of free electricity on the pattern of Delhi. AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra followed it up, saying “electricity bills would be reduced by half and the payment of pandemic period would be completely waived.”
The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL) incurs a daily financial loss of Rs 80 crore.
In its reportage from the ground, The New Indian came across Shantilal Jain, a businessman and a finance whiz who explained the maths of the sops, “300 units mean 10 units a day, UP’s population is 4-5 crs which means 50 cr units per day. UP gets 25,000 Megawatts of electricity, if you take out 20% losses, it comes to 21,000 Megawatts. 1 Mega Watt produces 1000 units in an hour so in one day 24000. If you multiply 21,000 to 24,000 you get 50cr units. If the center is producing 50cr units of electricity and a party promises to give the entire units for free, how will other industries function?”
Similarly adding on to the promise made by the government of giving Rs 1500 a month to women above 18 yrs of age, he added, “If you look at the population of women over 18 and you take the budget proposed by the center and the commission of the government it adds to Rs 5.5 lakh crore, but the proposed budget is of Rs 5 lakh crores. If you promise to give away Rs 5.5 lakh crores on this, how will further development occur? PM Modi and CM Yogi should talk about this and expose those are offering such sops.”
On development carried out under the CM Yogi regime, he shared that CM Yogi is the one who has worked on every front. “In our area there was a small bridge to be constructed that was started by Mulayam Singh in 2002. Then Mayawati decided to take over that in 2012 but no one completed it. Under CM Yogi’s regime, it was completed in under 1.5 years,” he said.
