HYDERABAD, Jan 11: Residents of Sweepers' Colony here on Sunday held a protest demonstration outside the Hyderabad Cantonment Board Saddar office against the disconnection of power supply to the colony.

They raised slogans against Hesco and the HCB, a dispute between which had led to the power supply disconnection, and demanded that the power supply to the colony should immediately be restored.

They told newsmen that Hesco officials had misbehaved with their women when they protested the disconnection. They claimed the HCB had been deducting Rs700 per month from their salaries on account of provision of electricity.

The protesters said they had been shunting between the offices of HCB and Hesco for the restoration of power supply but no one was coming to their rescue.

They said the situation had existed since their annual festival of Holi. When contacted, HCB chief executive officer Raja Faqirullah claimed Rs65,000 were being collected from them every month while the monthly electricity bill of the colony was close to Rs200,000.

Hesco Saddar sub-division SDO Abdul Ghafoor said that Rs13.9 million was outstanding against the colony. He said the HCB was getting power supply through bulk meter adding Hesco was concerned with the HCB directly and not with the colony residents because it was up to the cantonment board to issue separate meters.

He said the power supply to area was disconnected six days back and the HCB was not paying even the current bill apart from disputed amount which was pending adjudication.

A dispute existed between Hesco and the HCB since 1996 when the latter moved the civil court for adjudication of arrears, claiming the board was regularly paying bills to Hesco.

Later, the HCB moved the court of fourth senior civil judge in October 1997 against the arrears of Rs19 million and Hesco officials claimed apart from the disputed amount, the board was bound to pay rest of arrears issued after October 1997 which had now accumulated to more than Rs60 million.

Expressing his inability to tell the correct disputed amount, the board's CEO said the cantonment board had been regularly paying current bills. He expressed the hope that the issue would be settled soon.