LARKANA, Dec 2: The Wapda has cut off the electricity supply to around 20 villages, which get power from the empire sub-division on Monday.

The affected villages include Mohammed Saleh Brohi, Sachi Bakhsh Jagirani, Fatehpur, Mohammed Saleh Gopang, Umid Ali Mughiri, Mian Lal, Faiz Mohammed Narijo, Ghulam Mohammed Unnar, Abdul Karim Junejo, and Muhbat-ji-Wandh among others.

The Hesco officials said that power to the above-mentioned villages had been cut off as the consumers had failed to clear their outstanding dues which amounted to Rs500,000.

The villagers said that the power-theft cases rose all the more in the villages after the power cuts, and added that instead of cutting off the power supply of the defaulters, the Hesco had cut the supply to the whole village, which was an injustice.

APCA: The irrigation department’s unit of the All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA), Larkana, while criticizing the SIDA plan to fire senior employees from the department, urged the government to halt its implementation.

The leaders of APCA including Liaquat Bhatti, Aslam Rind, and Habiullah Solangi in a press statement issued on Monday said that the DIS was nothing but a policy to sack senior staff from the irrigation department in the name of rightsizing and downsizing.

They said that the plan was to recruit new employees on contractual basis at the cost of retrenching skilled staff, and added that it would render thousands of employees’ jobless.

They said that unskilled people would definitely ruin the department.

They criticized the policy-makers for they had no idea as to how to run essential service departments.

They announced to launch a Sindh-wide protest if the government made enblock dismissals.