KHAIRPUR, June 15: Residents of different villages took to the streets and held protest demonstrations on Tuesday against Hesco's programme of prolonged load-shedding.

In Baharo, villagers from Razidero, Sitabo and surrounding areas held a demonstration and staged a sit-in for three hours at the town's main chowk. The protesters said that power supply remained suspended for 10 to 12 hours daily.

They said that they were living in kutcha area where growers depended on tube-wells for irrigating their lands. They regretted that cotton crop sowing season was about to end but they could not cultivate the crop due to regular power suspensions.

They said that the non-availability of water had also affected vegetables. Later, local administration and police persuaded the power consumers to end the sit-in. Another demonstration was held by residents of Nauraja, Mian Khan, Larik and Ripri villages and other areas on the Ripri-Gambat road.

They raised slogans against Hesco for resorting to unannounced loadshedding. Some youngsters of Bhurgari Mohalla, reached the National Highway Bhurgari regulator and tried to block the road but police reached there and dispersed them.

The protesters said that the town was without electricity as its transformer which had burnt two days back had not been repaired.

PROMOTED: The Sindh Universities Selection Board has promoted three professors of the Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur, from BPS-20 to BPS-21. Those promoted were Dr Neelofar Shaikh, chairman of the archaeology department, Prof Mumtaz Qureshi of the chemistry department and Prof Mohammad Nawaz Chandh of the economics department.

ARRESTED: The Gambat police arrested Ujjan tribe chief Hammat Ali on Monday in connection with the Ujjan-Kaleri clash of 1994 but released him after seven hours when a large number of Ujjan tribesmen staged a sit-in on the National Highway.