NAWABSHAH, July 30: Amid growing power outages, people in different parts of Sindh protested against Hesco on Wednesday.

Nawabshah district faced major power breakdown paralyzing the life and forcing residents to hold demonstrations and burn tyres against the apathy of Hesco in different localities on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Down came the rain and up went the power supply bringing the activity to a halt. The outage not only spelled trouble for people but also helped in accumulating water on roads as disposal pumps too, sat still for want of energy. Worst sufferers were the patients of Nawabshah Medical College and other hospitals.

Protesters lambasted Hesoc officials for not doing much to mitigate the suffering of consumers who had to brave 12 hours of outage on Monday along with the same number of hours on the subsequent day. Their level of efficiency could be gauged by their absence from duties as Superintending Engineer, Executive Engineer and other concerned were not available for comments, while phones of the utility also remained busy, throughout.

People had demanded of the MNA and Minister for Water and Power Faryal Talpur to take notice of Hesco officials with directives to maintain sanity towards their duties.

In Mirpurkhas, hundreds of youths staged demonstrations at Umerkot road, Dholanabad, Sir Syed road and colony chowk here on Tuesday night to protest against unannounced loadshedding.

Protesters burnt old tyres and blocked the Umerkot road, Sir Syed road, Ibne Rushed girls college road and ring road by raising hurdles which led to suspension of vehicular traffic.

Protesters raised slogans against the chairman of Hesco and other officers and called for ending the unannounced loadshedding.

They complained that Hesco was carrying out 10-hour loadshedding in Mirpurkhas area instead of 6 hours, hence routine life and trade activities were worst affected.

They deplored that despite long hours loadshedding consumers were receiving inflated bill.

In Badin, residents of Khoski road Bhurgari Mohalla ward-6 are fed up with repeated power failures and little attention of authorities to rectify faults.

Badin people suffered a major power breakdown on Monday and Tuesday while loadshedding was being carried out by Hesco for six hours a day.

Apart from loadshedding, other electricity faults developed in different areas have also plagued people’s lives, especially of people living in Bhurgari Mohalla, Khoski road ward-6.

The weather was quite humid early on Tuesday when a major power breakdown occurred on the third time in the city. The rain began at 6.30pm.

The power supply was restored after four hours in other localities, but the breakdown lasted for 21 hours in Bhurgari mohalla. The supply restored at 3.30pm on Wednesday. Children and patients suffered the most during the power outage.

The cause of the power failure in Bhurgari mohalla was said to be a fault developed in a transformer that could not be rectified during 20 hours till next day.

The people demanded strict action against negligent officials.

In Larkana district, people and activists of Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz took out a procession in protest against prolonged and unannounced power outage in Qambar. The protestors were chanting slogans and holding banners. They marched from Anaj Mandi on the main roads and assembled at Martyrs’ Square where they burnt tyres and made speeches.

They said that 10 to 12 hours loadshedding had become a routine in Qambar and alleged that the SDO had given illegal connections and was bent upon carrying out the loadshedding to save these units.

They gave six days time to improve the situation and said if the situation remained unchanged they would went on a shutterdown strike.