IN JAMAICA: Change The Law - Gov't Implored To Allow Squatters To Get On The Electricity Grid.....Kelly Tomblin, president and chief executive officer of JPS, is stressing that the path must be cleared for legitimate electricity supply to be made readily accessible to informal settlers

Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer Published: Friday | May 23, 2014

Shocked by the spate of electricity theft across the island, the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) is urging the Government to amend local laws to empower informal settlers or squatters to apply for electricity service.

Squatters land

Kelly Tomblin, president and chief executive officer of JPS, is stressing that the path must be cleared for legitimate electricity supply to be made readily accessible to informal settlers who are without proof of home-ownership documents.

Persons who, for years, have squatted on lands are often without documents that grant them access to electricity under existing laws, leaving them with no option but to access electricity illegally.

It's not only squatters who stand to benefit from her proposal to remove the strictures requiring documentary proof of ownership to access legitimate electricity from JPS.

Scores of other Jamaicans who live in houses without the requisite documentary proof of ownership and are not able to legally access power supply would benefit as well.

KELLY TOMBLIN

Tomblin stressed yesterday in a Gleaner Editors' Forum that sought to shed light on the proliferation of electricity theft throughout the country that the "no document" obstacle must be removed forthwith.

In the ongoing fight against the scourge involving approximately 200,000 Jamaicans, Tomblin stressed that an administrative solution to the problem is needed. more