June 03, 2008	Tuesday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1429

SUKKUR, June 2: In addition to hours-long loadshedding, people of Sukkur are fuming at the double-agony the power has put them to – tripping of feeders no less than 10 to 20 times a day in hot season.

Loadshedding which began three months ago is now directly proportional to rising mercury – as the heat intensifies so does the frequency and duration of power outages.

This has paralyzed both the normal lives and slowdown in business and trade activities. Frequent tripping of feeders have added to the miseries as many have lost expensive electronic gadgets.

Sunday brought with it sleepless night for the people of Sukkur due to frequent power outages. Officials at grid station when contacted said it was due to a fault at power control Shikarpur, while on contact at power control Shikarpur, assistant sub-station attendant Mohammad Ali denied of any fault at their side as the system was running smoothly.

When this correspondent contacted the superintendent engineer operation Hesco Sukkur Mazharuddin Ujjan on mobile phone, he said that he was on way to Sukkur from Hyderabad where he had gone to attend a meeting with the chief executive Hesco. He said the chief executive Hesco had ordered six hours of loadshedding in urban areas and of eight hours in rural areas and a will be issued on Tuesday.

Residents of different localities of Sukkur staged a protest demonstration on Miani Road against hours-long unannounced power outages, frequent tripping, detection and excess reading bills.

Protesters were shouting slogans against Hesco Sukkur and later burnt tyres and staged a sit-in for an hour.

Protesters told newsmen that on one hand hours long loadshedding is being done and on the other people are issued detection bills and excess reading bills which is a burden the already over burdened people.

They demanded of the prime minister, federal minister for water and power, chairman Wapda, chief executive Hesco Hyderabad and other high-ups to take notice and rid the people of high handedness of Hesco Sukkur officials.