MIRPURKHAS, Nov 20: Many areas in the city went out of power at 1pm on Sunday when an 11kv wire snapped near LBOD colony on the Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas road.

Affected areas included the police shopping centre, Police Lines, Lal Para, Sarafa Bazaar, Shahi Bazaar, Khisakpur, Toorabad, grain Market, cloth market, Sir Syed Road, Dholanabad, Lalchandabad, Gharibabad, Khad Plot, Adam town, Ayub Nagar, Khari quarters, Jamnadas colony and the Kahu Bazaar.

Residents and shopkeepers faced hardships as business activities were badly affected.

Criticizing Hesco officials of the city sub-division, people said power disruptions had become a routine matter.

They claimed that Hesco daily suspended power supply to their areas to cover line losses.

They alleged that Hesco officials issued illegal detection bills to consumers and allowed influential people to steal power through direct lines.

They said they had approached the executive engineer, Hesco, operation, Mirpurkhas, to resolve the problem of illegal detection bills but to no avail.

They demanded that the Wapda chairman and Hesco chief executive should take immediate notice of the matter, cancel detection bills and ensure uninterrupted power supply otherwise they would launch a protest campaign against Hesco officials for their excesses.

An official of the city Hesco sub-division, Rao Abbas, said the wire had snapped when a tree had fallen on it, causing suspension of electricity.

He said repair work was continuing on the site and power supply would be restored after completion of the work.