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GPL disconnection campaign…Illegal networks will be dismantled – Dindyal
By Rabindra Rooplall
“As long as a person has his transport and letter of purchase and is a legitimate occupier, that person could apply for service and GPL is obligated to provide the service. But the person must meet the standard terms and conditions which are paying for their share of the network cost.”
Chief Executive Officer of GPL Bharat Dindyal
This was the assertion of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the power company, Bharat Dindyal, in response to GPL consumers from Wales and Sisters villages on the West Bank of Demerara. The residents’ services were disconnected during the week during consecutive raids by the Loss Reduction Department.
Residents of the area flocked the GPL Loss Reduction Department located at Sheriff Street, Georgetown, since they received instructions in the form of a letter left at their residences pertaining to their respective terminations and disconnections of service. The power company has heightened their campaign against illegal and unmetered services countrywide.
Many of the irate residents noted that although they produced all the relevant documentation, they were still disconnected. One man who has been receiving service for the past 12 years lamented the situation.
“They are telling us that the network is illegal without any sort of notification and I feel this is unjust. Now they ask us to go to their office at 8:00am and its 11:20 and no one is at the office to speak to anyone who is here.
“They are telling us that the person who we ought to talk to is not around. I have to go to work and now I am left here stranded. We need a straight answer; you can’t have people standing up all morning without saying anything.”
Many affected West Bank Demerara residents agreed that as swiftly as GPL is willing to seize their respective service, the utility company should also facilitate swift clearance and meetings to also reinstall legitimate service.
Dindyal noted that since last year GPL discovered in a number of instances that residents of various villages would have engaged either GPL operatives or others in private arrangements to construct networks and have them connected to GPL’s supply.
“We would have implemented a system where a customer coming in to apply for a prepaid meter service with the relevant documents would have their application swiftly processed. However, when the installation crews visit the person’s residence and discover it’s not a legitimate network, or on the government reserve or in an un-regularized area, this should be reported back to GPL.
Unfortunately what happens is that the individuals bribe the GPL crews to activate their service and the crews don’t report anything back and the information is not registered within the system.”
He added that eventually these issues are discovered and the respective GPL operatives would be held accountable.
Underscoring that on many occasions persons would have money to bribe GPL operatives and not any to pay for legal regularised service, the CEO noted, “When we actually give them an estimate to do the network legitimately, people claim that they can’t find the money.
“But they are finding this vast amount of money to pay for illegal and illegitimate service. In one instance on the East Bank, a village was given the option to pay for proper networks to be installed through the right process, and their service would be expedited.”
Some of the West Bank Demerara residents who were disconnected awaiting their turn to meet GPL representatives to explain their various situations.
He explained that many boundaries in various villages are changing through the Unserved Areas Electrification Programme in more than 300 communities and almost 270 of these communities end up with extra streets overnight and these residents apply for service rapidly.
“If a network is constructed for a community with ten streets, then suddenly an eleventh street appears, persons are bribed to install services for these households, and we eventually discover it is not on GPL drawings and it was done illegitimately. This is happening a lot in Regions Three, Four, Five and Six.
“Regularization should be done legitimately and on most occasions in these unregularised zones the wires are constructed on substandard networks with illegal wires and condemned/discarded poles,” the CEO stressed.
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