HYDERABAD, March 25: A large number of teachers and lower staff members staged a rally in Kotri on Thursday to protest against the non-payment of conveyance allowance despite repeated assurance by the education minister.

A procession was taken out under the aegis of Primary Education Alliance, a conglomerate of the Primary Teachers Association, Mosque School Teachers Association, Jamiat- ul-Mudaraseen and Lower Staff Union.

Ismail Leghari, Syed Ahmed Ali, Noor Mohammad Pathan and others led the protesters. The participants held a sit-in outside the residence of district Nazim Dadu Malik Asad Sikandar.

Speaking on the occasion, the leaders warned that if conveyance allowance was not restored then teachers would stage a hunger strike unto death from April 1. They said despite directives by the district Nazim the allowance was not restored.

POWER BREAKDOWN: The supply of power remained suspended to different parts of the city on Thursday on accounts of faults in the feeders of Hyderabad Electric Supply Company.

The power supply to the Gari Khata sub-division was interrupted first at 8:25am and restored at 9:45am on account of some fault. Another breakdown occurred at 3:05pm and the power supply was restored at 4:15pm in the same sub-division.

A Hesco official confirmed that the power supply to the Gari Khata sub-division was suspended twice in the day. In the Saddar sub-division the power breakdown occurred at 4:45pm on account of some fault.

The power supply was restored at 7pm. When the Power Dispatch Centre (PDC) was contacted, an official, who identified himself as Asghar refused to provide any information in this regard and disconnected the telephone line saying that he could give such information to the Hesco chief and no body else.

The transformer of the casualty ward of the civil hospital lost working, disrupting the power supply to the ward and diagnostic and research laboratory of the Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences.

The transformer is meant for the casualty ward but the laboratory is also getting power supply for it, multiplying the load. The suspension of the power supply was also reported in the parts of Hirabad sub-division but the sub-division official denied any breakdown.

The residents of Hirabad and Tower Market area, Moazzam and Rizwan, claimed that erratic power supply to their areas had become the order of the day.