DERA GHAZI KHAN, March 31: Scores of residents in tehsil Taunsa Sharif have complained receiving inflated electricity bills.

The protesters alleged on Saturday that a Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) mafia had been going freely in the tehsil.

When contacted, tehsil Taunsa Sharif Naib Nazim Dilshad Shaheen claimed the local Wapda SDO and his field staff were minting money by charging low amounts to some of the people while recovering the deficit from many others.

He said the mafia had wrongfully been implicating the poor who did not pay gratification or had complaints of overcharging.

He maintained he had appealed to the Wapda chairman to take immediate notice of the situation.

The local police had registered cases of power theft against some of the people, he added.

Meanwhile, some people have also resented the cancellation of flat rate on electricity for drawing irrigation water by turbines.

Most of the area consists of arid zone. The local farmers have installed turbines to irrigate their arid lands which are not in the common area of the Chashma Right Bank Canal.

The level of sub-soil water is very deep and only turbines are successful in the area. The cancellation of flat rates for irrigation has inflicted heavy loss on a large number of peasants.