.Berbicians, especially residents of the Upper Corentyne, are complaining

of suffering terribly because of lengthy periods endured without lights in their region, with blackouts oftentimes lasting for most of the day.
Berbice has a large Hindu community and residents are fearful that during this auspicious festival of lights, they would continue to dwell in darkness.
In a desperate letter to this newspaper a resident pleads, after all else has failed, ”….This is hurting every single person, including business people, parents, single mothers, innocent children, etc. It is hurting developmental efforts in the region as well. The streetlamps cannot work. Our OLPF laptops cannot be charged. Our food spoils.
“GPL is hurting the government’s image too, and causing our community to appear backward and underdeveloped to tourists, who are shocked at the constant blackouts plaguing our area. Please help us regarding the power supply, because residents are becoming very upset and disgruntled, and are talking about protesting if nothing is done. Thank you for your help as always.”
Another resident wrote: “I am a 57-year-old female remigrant residing on the Upper Corentyne. Kindly permit me to share with your readers the horrible experience I have had since returning to Guyana two months ago, thanks to GPL.
“Ever since I arrived, my area has been plagued by blackouts. In the past two weeks or so, the situation has significantly deteriorated, to the point where we would have periods of blackout lasting more than 10 hours at a time. Last Friday, for instance, we had blackout for more than 10 hours, and the same was true yesterday, when we had blackout from around 8:30 in the morning until after 6:00 in the evening.
“Additionally, I found it extremely difficult to contact GPL’s hotline at 333-2186, as the number was constantly busy. Editor, to make matters worse, on both days, the worker answering this number lied bare-facedly to me and told me the power would be restored in an hour or so, when that certainly was not the case.
“When that hour passed and I called back, the worker said to wait another two hours. And so the pattern went on for both days. Editor, that is frankly deplorable customer service, and is frustrating for customers who, quite honestly, are justified in the disgust felt towards GPL.
“I spoke with a friend of mine who is a remigrant physician in the area and he too had the same experiences as I did with GPL’s hotline personnel. He expressed his disgust, frustration, and also shame at the mockery that GPL has made of our country.
“Editor, what is wrong with GPL? This is clearly a company that is not ready for the demands and challenges of the 21st century!
“They operate as though blackouts are just minor inconveniences for customers, and show total disdain and disregard for the hardworking people of the Upper Corentyne who just want to earn a decent living and get ahead in life. All GPL does is disrupt life for these people, disrupt their work, and create unnecessary stress and financial expenses for individuals.
“Ten hours of blackout per day is simply unacceptable. It is a disaster and will destroy the economy of the Upper Corentyne if it is not urgently fixed.
“Mr. Bharat Dindiyal and Mr. Ayube Bacchus need to address our concerns with urgency. You cannot imagine the anger and frustration I, my neighbours and friends feel right now at this situation. I came back to Guyana based on representations made in the media that things are looking brighter and developments are going on.
“But here in the Upper Corentyne, and in other parts of Berbice our nights are darker and darker, and our days[are] filled with misery and frustration as we contemplate how to cope with the troubles caused by GPL.
“I am calling on the authorities to come down to this area to understand how severe this problem is, how it is negatively impacting us, undermining all our hard work, and impeding the flow of business in this area.
“I am pleading with President Ramotar to also visit us and to intervene and fix this situation before things turn ugly and residents start protesting in disgust.”
Busy schedules and overwhelming responsibilities constrain authority figures from personally inspecting situations on the ground, depending on middle management to report on issues so that action can be precipitated; but sometimes the middle-management have their own agendas of destabilisation; are at best just plain lazy and uncaring, knowing they are far away from authority and/discovery of their lack of effort to address anomalies in the service sectors.
This is a bugbear that plagues the PPP/C administration and the government needs to take heed and have trusted officials pay random visits to the rural areas and listen to the concerns of the people, with assurances given and action promised – with minimum time before delivery.      All government’s developmental initiatives will come to naught if complaints of the working-class people, and even the private sector, all of whom depend on a reliable supply of electricity for their various areas of interest and needs; as well as other anomalies that create roadblocks in their daily lives are not addressed with some degree of urgency.