Lucknow, Jul 27 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh Energy Minister A.K. Sharma has warned power officials against frequent electricity outages across the state.

He has directed officials to launch a night checking drive in their areas to curb theft of electricity and stop recurrent local faults being caused due to overloading.

The directive comes in the wake of continuing power cuts and tripping in Uttar Pradesh.

“People overloading the system with unauthorised use of electricity and causing revenue loss to the corporation will not be spared,” he said in a statement here.

The Minister said the power demand in the state had surged in an unprecedented manner due to acute humidity.

“The work to upgrade and strengthen the power distribution network is in full swing and people will get 24 hours of supply in the time to come,” Sharma said.

He also appealed to consumers to pay their bills on time.

Meanwhile, undeclared load shedding continued in various parts of the state, the situation being the worst in villages.

Frequent tripping and distribution faults are being widely reported from cities.