THATTA, June 23: Frequent power breakdowns in Thatta district over the last one month are causing immense hardships to people.

Residents of Thatta town, Mirpur Bathoro and Sujawal are the worst affected where Hesco authorities are carrying out four to six hours daily load-shedding.

Hesco authorities claimed the shutdowns were needed to overcome the “line losses” incurred due to shattered copper wires, low capacity line insulators, power theft in many areas and some technical reasons.

However, refuting Hesco authorities claim, sources revealed that the Hesco operational staff was the “co-sharer” of “power beneficiaries” in many towns and collecting “bhatta” from a majority of power consumers, particularly from the residents of slums, villages and small traders.

In this connection, the taluka council of Thatta which met last week unanimously passed a resolution against the Hesco executive engineer (operation), Thatta, Nisar Ahmed Abbasi for his handling of the power crises the resolution demanded his immediate transfer.

Thatta PML MNA Syed Ayaz Ali Shah Shirazi told a delegation from various towns of the district in his native Saeedpur village on Friday that he will apprise Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz about the poor performance of Thatta Hesco and request for special measures, including installation of grid stations at Mirpur Bathoro and some other towns.

This correspondent made many attempts to seek comments of Hesco Chief Executive Maqbool Ahmed Khwaja on the subject but he was always told to be out of station.

Due to constant electric failure, water supply, hospitals, ice and rice factories and small businesses are getting suffered.