LARKANA, June 30: A complete strike was observed in the city on Friday in protest against frequent power breakdowns and issuing of detection bills by the Hyderabad Electricity Supply Company.

The Jeay Sindh Qaumi Mahaz had given the call for strike.

Traders responding to the call, kept their business shut and even petrol pumps were closed in the city.

JSQM activists in the lead of Athar Soomro, Aziz Shaikh and Noor Abro took out a procession from the Rice canal bridge and marched on the main roads of the city. They demanded that Hesco should stop sending highly inflated power bills, halt power load-shedding and clamp down on wrong billing.

Talking to Dawn, Athar Soomro said that Hesco had issued more than 5,000 detection bills in May and June.

He said that unannounced load-shedding had made people’s lives miserable in the city where temperature swells to 50 degree Celsius. Mr Soomro said that Hesco had also failed to replace damaged transformers.

He said that when Hesco’s superintendent engineer was contacted, he had assured correcting wrong bills and stop sending bills with extra units.