Alleging that giving power distribution of Agra city to private hands was causing huge losses to the UP Power Corporation Ltd (UPPCL), the All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) on Friday demanded Chief Minister Mayawati to dismiss the agreement with private franchisee company Torrent Power immediately.

AIPEF general secretary Shailendra Dubey in a letter to the Chief Minister said, the private company was violating terms of the agreement which has resulted into additional loss of Rs 53 crore to the power corporation.

Union Environment Ministry has asked the state government to take strict action against those industrial units that are polluting river Aami in Gorakhpur making groundwater in adjoining areas unfit for drinking purposes.

Realising that the closure of Gandak canal could jeopardise its election prospects in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the Mayawati government has lodged a protest with Bihar government saying farmers were being affected because of the closure of this all-important canal of the region.
Chief Secretary Anup Kumar Mishra had held a meeting with his Bihar counterpart early this week and demanded that the canal be made operational at the earliest.

Continuing to shower sops in this election year, the state government unveiled a new housing policy for the weaker section of society under which people of low income group would get residential units at a price ranging from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 4.25 lakh.

A decision in this regard was taken in the Cabinet meeting held here on Wednesday. The government specified that the policy would be an integral part of all housing projects coming up in the private, co-operative and government sectors in the state.

Alleging acute scarcity of fertlizers across the state owing to state government's faulty policies, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) on Monday demanded putting effective check on blackmarketeering of Urea in several districts.

RLD state spokes person and national party general secretary, Anil Dubey said, while the Urea was not available at godowns of farmer co-operative committees instead it was openly being sold on higher prices in black market.

In a major development, the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday set aside acquisition of more than 100 hectares of land in Mathura district for promoting tourism and developing residential colonies, quashing the notification for the same and holding that invoking of “urgency clause” by UP government was “not justified”.

The flood situation continued to be grim in the state with 29 districts and more than 25 lakh people badly affected by it.
With 10 more deaths reported in the past two days, the toll in flood and rain-related incidents rose to 123.
All major rivers were flowing above the danger mark at several places.

According to reports, the National Disaster Response Force was deployed at Gonda and Shahjahanpur districts for rescue and relief works while the flood divison of PAC was deployed at the 27 other flood-affected districts.

The All-India Power Engineers Association (AIPEA) will take out a procession in the state capital on September 18 to protest the government's policy to give power generation into private hands.
Before the procession, the AIPEA will organise public meetings in districts on the Engineers Day, September 15, to make people aware of the pitfalls of the Central and state governments' policies for power sector.

While more than two dozen districts were flood affected the state government has only added woes to the farmers as acute shortage of fertiliser has come up across the state.

The state BJP spokesman Vijay Bahadur Pathak said on Thursday that flood has made the lives of hell of the farmers in more than two dozen districts and agriculture area amounting to several lakhs hectare was adversely affected. " As it was not enough now the farmers are facing the acute shortage of fertilisers" he said.

Amidst an uproar the Legislative Assembly passed the Uttar Pradesh Town Planning and Development (Amendment) Bill, 2011, on Thursday which would have far reaching consequences and also spark a fresh controversy over the already burning land acquisition issue.