Lucknow, Oct. 8 -- After months of delay and continued employees' protest for over 300 days, the Uttar Pradesh government is preparing to fast-track the process of privatising power distribution in 42 districts under Agra and Varanasi distribution companies (discoms) together, following the return of chief secretary SP Goyal from medical leave. "The privatisation process was delayed by about two months due to a change of the chief secretary and the new incumbent SP Goyal proceeding on a long medical leave soon after taking charge. Now that he has resumed office, the process will be expedited," said a senior energy department official, adding that the chief secretary, as chairperson of the Energy Task Force (ETF), played a key role in major decisions concerning the power sector. The Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) is already gearing up to submit its response to the queries raised by the UP Electricity Regulatory Commission in June regarding the privatisation proposal. The UPPCL sought the regulator's opinion on the government's directive, following which the regulator pointed out over two dozen gaps and shortcomings in the privatisation draft and asked the corporation to respond to all the queries before it could issue its opinion. The commission noted that UPPCL's financial data was based on the 2023-24 balance sheet, even though the 2024-25 balance sheet was already available, and directed the corporation to present all data related to the Agra and Varanasi discoms using the latest figures. Other queries, according to officials familiar with the matter, included how power allocation would be handled for private entities since it is currently managed centrally by UPPCL, whether government subsidies for free power to farmers would extend to private companies, the fate of regulatory assets, and how the valuation of assets for the two discoms would be carried out. The commission raised some legal issues as well. UPPCL chairman Ashish Kumar Goel said the corporation would shortly submit its response to the regulator. "We will very soon provide our replies to all the queries raised by UPERC in June," he stated, adding that the transaction advisor (consultant) was carrying out its work as per the planned timeline. The privatisation process is expected to accelerate once UPPCL submits its response to the commission, which otherwise plays only a limited role in the overall process. Once the regulator gives its approval, UPPCL will issue a request for proposal (RFP), prepared by the consultant, inviting private players to bid for taking over power distribution of the multiple companies set to be created after the unbundling of the two discoms-Agra (Dakshinanchal) and Varanasi (Purvanchal)....