Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has unpaid electricity bills to the tune of Rs 4 lakh. This has come to light during an inspection conducted by a team of officials of Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited.

The inspection at Mulayam’s sprawling residence in the Civil Lines area of Etawah came in the wake of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath’s emphasis on eliminating VIP culture from the state.

The delinquent residence is one of the biggest in the city with more than a dozen rooms. It has its own air-conditioning plant, several elevators and a temperature-controlled swimming pool.

According to an ANI report, the inspection revealed that the Samajwadi Party patriarch was using electricity eight times more than the stipulated limit of 5 KW a day.

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“We are conducting a drive to stop power theft, check overloading and recover dues,” Ashutosh Varma, the officer leading the team that conducted the inspection was quoted as saying by a report. Yadav has been given a time period till the end of the month to pay up the dues.

In lieu of the additional power supply, officials have changed the configurations of Mulayam’s residence to 40 KW. That means he has to pay eight times more.

This is text-book case of how high and mighty were consuming electricity much beyond the permissible limit throwing the law out of the windows. There must be a long list of power defaulters from the previous regime. This is now a matter of throw investigation.

Mulayam’s unpaid power bill is a clear proof of power theft by those in power. Needless to mention that because of such irregularities, the common citizens have been systematically deprived of their rights. Once the investigation reaches a conclusion, it can only lay bare yet another electricity scam rocking the high and mighty of Uttar Pradesh.

After Yogi Adityanath regime took the reins, the Uttar Pradesh government is focusing on drawing up a road map for revamping the power sector in the state. Uttar Pradesh government has signed a power pact with Centre to ensure 24 hour electricity supply to district headquarters, 20 hours to tehsil headquarters and 18 hours power supply to all villages. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has promised 24 hour electricity to every house by October 2018.

“In a democracy, if someone is really a VIP or VVIP, it is the common man. Keeping this motto we have decided to ensure power to all in the state,” the Chief Minister had said while hoping that the people would display “high morality”.

Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal emphasised that the power sector in Uttar Pradesh be made efficient by eliminating power theft through strict monitoring. During the previous Samajwadi Party regime, Uttar Pradesh was reeling under severe power crisis. The state used to top the energy deficient states, clocking power shortage of 11.6 per cent against the all-India average of 2.3 per cent.

In the last Assembly elections, electricity was a major poll issue by the Bharatiya Janata Party. In the run up to the elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised 24/7 electricity and said that the political rivals would get electric shocks from UP poll results. BJP won Uttar Pradesh in a biggest mandate in nearly three decades.