LARKANA, July 23: The power crisis, which started on Monday night, has worsened as two sources of power supply to the district from Dadu and Guddu have not been restored as yet.

The people of a majority of localities in the cities and towns of the district are facing hardships as they have been living without any electricity for the last three days.

At least 400 electric poles have fallen down following Monday night’s storm, said a Hesco official on Wednesday.

The superintendent engineer, Hesco, Larkana, was not in his office when this correspondent tried to contact him.

Larkana had obtained supply from the 66KV, Sukkur, on an emergency basis. However, almost all the industrial units are being badly affected with a low voltage.

A Hesco official told this correspondent on Wednesday that two big towers of 132KV line had fallen down between Ratodero and Gari Yaseen towns as a result of which the power supply from the Guddu power station had been cut off.

Also a 132 KV tower had fallen down between Larkana and Nasirabad as a result of which the power supply from the Dadu grid station had been cut off. The grid stations of Hesco were busy trying to restore the power supply.

Sources said that the cranes could not reach certain areas which was causing delay in getting the power restored.

A Hesco source said that the electricity crisis may last for a week.

FRAUD: The district government has learnt that scholarships extended by the Ministry of Religious Affairs (MORA) had been fraudulently distributed to some students of the Government Degree College without verifying their authenticity.

Amir Bakhsh Gaad, chairman, education committee, on Wednesday told this correspondent that some students of the Government Degree College had approached the district Nazim’s secretariat where they said that the college principal, Prof Imdad Hussain Memon, had distributed scholarship cheques amongst the students who had never applied for scholarships.

He said the principal had recommended only 44 cases, while the Zakat body concerned referred 274 cases to the college showing them eligible for the MORA scholarships.

The district Zakat body gave a cheque of Rs1,233,000 to the principal for the purpose.

The complaining students said that the majority of the applications were fake. The photographs pasted on the applications too were not of the students concerned.

It was learnt that the principal had entirely relied upon a clerk of the college but the cheques carried the signature of the principal and were not cross-cheques.

The principal claimed that the leaders of some students’ organizations had compelled him to do it.