UDAY fails to save UPs bleeding Discoms, 49% homes without power: Study

To meet the central government's '24x7 Power' For All by 2022 target, the state would have to electrify 300,000 houses every month

The electricity distribution companies (discoms) of Uttar Pradesh ran up losses totalling Rs 21,486 crore ($3.2 billion) by 2016, enough to pay the electricity bills of 100 million households for more than a month (at 10 units per day per household at Rs 5 per unit).

Successive governments have kept electricity prices low for political gain, keeping discoms in the red, according to a study by Global Subsidy Initiative (GSI), an arm of the International Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD), a think-tank. Other reasons include technical losses, power theft and failure