NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Wednesday said it will hold a demonstration in Noida on Thursday to protest against power cuts in Uttar Pradesh amid sweltering heat in the state.
The agitation is scheduled at a time when 76 deaths have taken place in the last seven days in Ballia district of eastern UP amid heatwave conditions in the region, with a state government official flagging power outages as one of the factors responsible for the worsening condition of patients before they were brought to the hospital.
AAP’s Gautam Buddh Nagar unit president Bhupendra Singh Jadaun said his party will hold a protest at the Noida city magistrate’s office.“There’s sweltering heat in UP which is causing difficulty to people and to make matters worse there are major power outages because of which many people have died. However, the state government is not taking any step towards fixing the problem,” Jadaun said.
Earlier, a survey by LocalCircles showed that 94 per cent of residents of the state have experienced power outages in June. Also, 65 per cent of those surveyed in UP are facing outages three or more times on average each day, it claimed.
Meanwhile, amid the rise in deaths at the Ballia district hospital, a UP health department official flagged power cuts among the factors responsible for the worsening condition of the patients before they were brought there. Dr A K Singh, a member of the committee sent to the district to ascertain the cause of death, said the deaths at the hospital were primarily due to conditions related to old age.
94% of residents in UP faced outages in June: Survey
A survey by LocalCircles showed that 94 % of residents of UP experienced power outages in June. 65 % of those surveyed faced outages three or more times on average each day, it said