HYDERABAD, June 1: DCO Farooq Ahmed Leghari has directed the heads of government departments not to use air-conditioners between 8am and 11am in line with federal government’s instructions to conserve electricity.

Mr Leghari said at a meeting with government officials and representatives of businessmen on Saturday that all the business centres and shops should be closed by 9pm in compliance with government orders.

He said that energy crisis was a national issue and advised business community to use energy savers instead of bulbs and tube-lights and try to reduce power consumption by 50 per cent.

The president of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Haji Mohammad Yaqoob, said that business community was fully alive to the crisis and was cooperating with Hesco.

Load-shedding between 7 to 10 pm should be avoided as it was seriously affecting business activities, he said.

The representatives of business community criticised unscheduled load-shedding, issuance of detection bills and Hesco’s inefficiency to take action against power thieves.

Hesco officials said in their defence that as per schedule, load-shedding was being carried out for nine hours and claimed that wherever it became inevitable to resort to unannounced loadshedding due to some technical faults, the duration of loadshedding in that particular area was reduced.

They said that 50 per cent of people were involved in power theft and urged business community and honest domestic consumers to identify Hesco employees who were involved in power theft.

The meeting decided that the business community would meet at the HCCI’s secretariat to determine load-shedding hours.