Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath on Tuesday ordered authorities to provide 18 hours of uninterrupted power supply across villages in the state while the district headquarters will get electricity for all 24 hours. Adityanath made these announcements while chairing his second Cabinet meeting in Lucknow.

The chief minister also asked the power department to ensure that defective transformers in rural areas were replaced immediately. He told the Cabinet that agricultural operations should not suffer for such problems, reported PTI. Besides, the chief minister also ordered officials to ensure that there is uninterrupted power supply to the villages from 6 pm to 6 am. “Examinations are on and students should get power during the night so that they do not have to suffer,” said State Power Minister Shrikant Sharma.

Adityanath also made a special announcement for the Bundelkhand region, where there will be 20 hours of uninterrupted power supply. Earlier this month, Adityanath had cleared a Rs 47-crore package for drinking water in the Bundelkhand region. The chief minister had said that the region had been ignored by previous governments for the past 15 years.

Minister Sharma added that Adityanath will sign the “Power for All” pact with Union minister Piyush Goyal on April 14 to achieve the Centre’s aim of making the state energy efficient by 2018. “It is the dream of BJP chief Amit Shah and the chief minister that every house, every poor [person], and every village get power by 2018,” Sharma said.

During his first Cabinet meeting on April 4, Adityanath had waived loans worth Rs 30,729 crore taken by small and marginal farmers. It had also decided to forego non-performing assets worth Rs 5,630 crore from seven lakh farmers.