SUKKUR, May 17 Angered by water shortage and power breakdowns in the extremely hot weather, hundreds of people took to the streets here on Sunday and severly criticised what they called inefficiency of the municipal and Hesco officials.

Residents of Bhoosa Lane, Qureshi Goth, Microwave Colony, New Pind and other areas staged demonstrations in their localities to protest against an acute shortage of water over the past eight days.

The protestors attacked the offices of the union councils 12 and 13, damaged furniture and fixture and blocked the roads outside the offices for two hours by burning tyres on them.

Qari Muneer, Wazir Ali, Khan Mohammad and other protesters told media people that they were facing an acute water shortage despite repeated promises by the City taluka council to improve the situation.

They accused the taluka municipal administration officials of corruption and alleged that they ensured water supply to ice factories and industries but denied the residential areas their share of water.

They said that when they contacted the TMA officials, they came up with the reply that water supply was disrupted due to prolonged power outages.

They said that heavy duty generators were approved for main water works three years ago but had not been purchased yet though millions of rupees were spent on non-development works every year.

They warned of a protest movement if the TMA failed to ensure restoration of smooth water supply to their localities in 24 hours.

Meanwhile, hundreds of residents of the Bunder Road area staged a protest demonstration, burnt tyres and blocked the road for three hours to protest against prolonged and undeclared electricity outages and frequent tripping of the feeders.

Sikandar Khokhar, Nazir Shaikh and Mujeeb Shaikh told journalists that with the advent of summer, the problem of undeclared and prolonged loadshedding had intensified. They said that frequent tripping of feeders worsened the situation.

They said that when they contacted the local grid station or Hesco complaint centre, the officials refused to share any information with them.

They said when any VIP visited Sukkur, uninterrupted power supply was ensured during his stay in the city but as soon as the VIP left the city, loadshedding started again.

They urged the federal minister for water and power, Wapda chairman and Hesco chief executive officer to take notice of the situation and ensure an end to undeclared loadshedding and frequent tripping of feeders.