The Government's move to assist inner-city residents, who have been stealing electricity from the Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS), has been pro-gressing slowly, an official said.
According to information from the Rural Electrification Pro-gramme (REP), only 500 house-holds have paid the 10 per cent deposit to regularise service with the JPS.
Under the programme, persons will be loaned up to $20,000 to purchase material and pay for electrical wiring. The balance would be paid over a four-year period at a cost of $300 monthly.
Poor response
"Response has not been what we had expected or would have been satisfied with. We tried to get improvement by putting adver-tisement in the media ... We have had improved response since," Samuel Marshall, chief engineer at the REP, told The Gleaner.
Mr. Marshall said however, that of the 500 applicants, nearly 400 households have been awarded the loan for house wiring, while a total of 120 homes have completed wiring, are certified and are receiving legal electricity from the JPS.
Most of the applications, the chief engineer said, have come from Arnett Gardens and section of Central Kingston, including Almond Town. Earlier this year, thousands of persons who were stealing electricity from the JPS applied for proper connections under a 30-day amnesty, which saw over 10,000 applications being sent to the JPS.
However, just under 5,000 applications were approved as most applicants were unable to access the amnesty as their premises were not properly wired.
Between 2001 and 2005, under the REP, almost 15,000 homes were wired for electricity.
The total number of homes wired since the start of the REP in 1975, stands at over 70,000.
