LUCKNOW: A new flavour of power struggle is palpable in the air of Lucknow with Uttar Pradesh’s Energy Minister AK Sharma having taken an unexpected swipe at his own government, raising serious questions over the decision to privatise Purvanchal and Dakshinanchal power companies.A post on his X handle argued that such major decisions were not made by the minister in isolation, but with full approval of the state’s task force led by the Chief Secretary. The minister, while releasing a statement, also claimed that the decision over the privatisation of DISCOMs was done at the highest level of state government.Even as a section of power department employees has been on the warpath for the past seven months against the proposed privatisation of DISCOMs, AK Sharma, seen as a close confidant of PM Modi and currently heading the Power and Urban Development departments in the state, has blamed “miscreants in the guise of electricity employees” for tarnishing the department’s image.While accusing the department of selling public assets for peanuts, the protesting power employees have been demanding that CM Yogi Adityanath take control of the department himself.While releasing a statement, the minister wondered as to why only he had faced four strikes during his three-year tenure as minister and no other department was in trouble.
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