Paragrand residents appeal to TTEC: Give us light

RESIDENTS of a community off Fond Pois Doux Road, Paragrande, Maraval, are appealing to TTEC to connect their houses to the grid.

They say they have paid for the service but were since told that the connection was illegal.

Now, residents say the situation has now become dire as there was a robbery in the community.

One of the most affected, 77-year-old Kenneth Hinkson, said he is trying to do the right thing. He said he has been living in the area since the 1990s, and had been using battery systems and generators to provide power to his house.

He said he and the other residents had been trying to find out how to get their houses connected and were given advice by someone associated with a large project further up the main road.

“I was told my share was $25,000 of $150,000 to get current up here. I banded my belly and paid it. TTEC people came two years ago and did two surveys to know where to locate the posts, if a transformer was needed, what cables and poles were needed, and they said 10 to 12 poles were needed to bring current from where the streetlight was on the main road inside to the houses.

“A contractor came and did the work and people were put onto the system 18 months ago. TTEC inspected the lines to my house and said they were fit for connection and they told me I could take my inspection certificate and apply for an account, and I would be connected within a week. I did that, but when I wasn’t connected after two weeks, I started to ask what was happening, and things began getting kind of vague.”

Hinkson said he was told that the whole project had not been formally been approved by TTEC, which he found strange considering a transformer, poles and cables had been installed, with the remains of a cable roll being left in the community.

“I told them, 'you’ve connected a whole host of people already, why not me?' They said, 'well we just realised that, so we’re not connecting any more people.'

"But they connected someone else further down the road from me after that. I want to know why I’m being singled out for non-connection.”

He said he was told the next step was that TTEC would come and inspect the system and everyone would be taken off the system and a re-evaluation exercise carried out, with residents possibly being asked to further contribute to the infrastructure. He wrote to the Regulated Industries Commission, who wrote to TTEC and were told the same thing. This was a year ago, and nothing further happened.

Hinkson said he reached out to the media after an incident in February 2023, when men with cutlasses broke into several houses and injured residents.

“We called the police and they came promptly. It’s now even more important for us to have electricity for security purposes. We need proper lighting and security systems. Why am I being penalised if the proper internal procedures were not followed in TTEC? We went ahead on good faith and paid our money. These are essential services for the public, why am I being denied?”

The community later installed a security gate to help them feel safer. There are at least seven people connected to the unofficial system. Hinkson said he was not sure if they were paying bills or were registered with TTEC.