Patna, May 20: State energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav on Friday accused Union power minister Piyush Goyal of issuing statements without ascertaining facts and hurting Bihar's image.

"The statements Piyush made at a press conference are unbecoming of a central minister," Bijendra told The Telegraph. "He should speak only after knowing the facts. What he said today hurt the prestige of Bihar. He should not indulge in such low talk."

Earlier in the day, Piyush, while interacting with journalists in New Delhi and through video conferencing in other states, had rejected allegations and data provided by the Bihar State Power Holding Company Limited (BSPHCL) to state that the central government was not meeting the supply of 3,003MW allocated to Bihar because of which it had to purchase power from the open market and through bilateral transactions.

"This is a completely false allegation. I know I am using harsh words, but if the Centre is not supplying the allocated power to Bihar, let it give specific data. I will be happy to send as much power as it wants," Piyush said. The Union power minister asserted that there was no energy shortage on Friday or Thursday, and quoted real-time figures available on www.vidyutpravah.in on power price and availability at 1.09pm to say that Bihar had not bought any electricity from the power exchanges either on Thursday or on Friday.

"Bihar should be asked how could there be any shortage if it did not buy any power from the power exchange on Thursday," Piyush said.

The data shared by BSPHCL on Friday showed that the state purchased 1,180MW of power from bilateral transactions and the power exchange on Friday. It bought 716MW on Thursday and 750MW on Wednesday to meet shortfall in centrally allocated quota.

The Union minister also hit out at the state government for lagging behind on the rural electrification front for several years despite full funds having been provided by the Centre. He said the Centre has brought forward the target for complete rural electrification deadline by a year and wanted to achieve it by May 1, 2017. "Just recently we have provided Rs 5,856 crore for Deendayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY). Similarly, Rs 2,110 crore has been provided for Integrated Power Development Scheme," he said.

Piyush said the Centre was willing to sign MoUs again for NTPC's thermal power plant at Kajra in Lakhisarai district and NHPC's thermal power.