Lucknow, Aug 23 (IANS): The power crisis continued unabated in Uttar Pradesh Saturday as the people battled extreme heatwave conditions and long power cuts.

Officials of the UP Power Corporation Limited (UPPCL) said that the state was facing a yawning gap - 2,300 MW on Friday - between the demand and supply of power and this is likely to go up during the weekend.

Following anger among the people over power outages, chief secretary Alok Ranjan Saturday instructed the power corporation officials to strictly follow the schedule for load shedding.

Asking officials to ensure best possible power supply, Ranjan also directed officials to well publicise the load shedding schedule so that people were not caught unaware by power cuts.

Warning officials against any laxity in attending to local glitches and breakdowns, which often lead to violent protests by irate people, the chief secretary also issued instructions to ensure proper water supply across the state, as it has been badly hit due to low voltage and power cuts.

Managing Director of UPPCL, A.P. Mishra, said start-up power has been provided to Aanpara-D power plant late Friday and that a 500 MW unit would start power generation within the next three months. He also informed that the state would get 50 MW power late Saturday from Meghalaya.