HYDERABAD, May 1: The Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco) on Monday issued notices to all Sindh government departments warning them that if they failed to clear their dues by a certain date Dthe company would disconnect their power supply.

Hesco Chief Executive Maqbool Ahmed Khwaja directed company officials to disconnect power supply to all the defaulting government departments, said a Hesco spokesman and added a meeting of chief executive with chief secretary of Sindh and adviser to the chief minister on finance in recent past had decided that at least Rs1 billion of dues would be cleared but no bills had been paid till April 30.

Hesco Commercial Manager Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah said that the two secretaries were informed in a meeting on March 29 that the Sindh government owed the company Rs4,200 million up to March 2007 and the meeting decided that Rs912 million outstanding against essential services such as water supply, hospitals and jails would be cleared immediately.

A letter to this effect was also sent to the officials concerned but since then no step had been taken to clear the amount, he said.

He appealed to all the DCOs and nazims to reduce power consumption on streetlights and also advised all the steel mill units and wielding shops to save electricity during peak hours to facilitate the company’s load management programme.

RELIEF CHEQUES: District Nazim Kanwar Naveed Jamil on Monday distributed relief cheques amounting to Rs626,000 among the rickshaw, mini taxi and motorcycle owners whose vehicles were burnt at a rickshaw stand in Paretabad two months ago in a fire incident.

The nazim said at the ceremony for cheques distribution that although it duty of provincial and federal governments to provide relief to the fire affectees but the district government took it upon itself to give them relief.