The Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council witnessed acrimonious scenes involving the members of the ruling BJP and opposition parties over the issue of power supply and laying of underground cables in Aligarh.
Replying to a supplementary question during Question Hour, Power Minister Shrikant Sharma said the work to make the power cables underground would be completed by March, 2019.
In the supplementary question, Jagveer Kishore Jain of the Shikshak Dal had said that as per information available to him, the work was yet to commence. He also sought to know that if the work had commenced, how much of it was completed.
In his reply, Sharma said, "The work has already started and the specific information sought in the supplementary will be collected and the House will be informed about it."
To further queries, the minister said the additional information sought by the member would be collected and the latter would be duly informed.
However, some members of the SP and other parties demanded that the supplementary question be answered in the House itself.
To this, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma, who is also the Leader of the House, said, "The power minister has already stated the date when the power cables would be made underground. The question was whether the work had commenced or not. The minister has answered that too."
This led to a heated exchange between the two sides and the Chair referred Jain's question to the Questions Committee of the House.
At one point, Sharma said statistics showed that electricity was being made available in the state.
"The system we inherited was in shambles. Our aim is to make electricity available as per the roster," he said, triggering protests by the SP members, who accused the minister of not providing correct information in the House.
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