SUKKUR, Jan 31: Residents of the Barrage Colony on Friday staged a demonstration outside the HESCO Office after power to the colony was cut off because of non-payment of dues amounting to Rs28 million.

The majority of people living in the Barrage Colony, which has a population of 10,000, complained that they had regularly paid rent of their houses as well as electricity charges to the authorities of the irrigation department.

They accused the irrigation authorities of not having deposited the electricity charges with the HESCO.

The local Nazim, Yousuf Jagirani, said that this was the third time that power to the entire colony had been disconnected.

He blamed the irrigation department’s officials for having their failure to reach an agreement with the HESCO, adding that this has forced the people to launch protest.

Over a thousand people had assembled outside the HESCO office, raising slogans, but the HESCO officials refused to restore the power till the clearance of dues by the irrigation authority officials.

Another demonstration was also staged in front of the office of the chief engineer, irrigation, Sukkur.

The protesters were calling upon the irrigation authorities to settle the issue without any further delay.

accident: One persons was killed while nine others were injured on Friday after a coach overturned after colliding with a tree on the Indus Highway near Lakhi, some 12 kilometres away from here.

The passenger coach was en route from Shikarpur to Sukkur.

The deceased has been identified as Meeral, son of Misri Khan, while the injured, include Ghulam Shabbir Shah, Ehsan Ali, Siraj Ahmed, Ameer Bakhsh, Riaz Ali, Ghulam Mohammad, Ikhtiar Ali and Ahmed Din Khoso.

The injured were later taken to hospitals in Sukkur and Shikarpur.