Most of the country is still in the dark

Letters

ELECTRICITY is important to improve the quality of life and socio-economic status of the people.
Electrification should be a government funded programme run over a certain period of time targeting the entire population of the country to provide electricity to their homes.
After 41 years of Independence, every household in PNG should have electricity. Yet only 13 per cent of the country’s estimated eight million people have access to electricity.
In many countries, electrification is a government funded programme to improve the quality of life of citizens.
In PNG, instead of running electrification programs to provide electricity to improve the quality of life and socio-economic status of the people, allows individual MPs to deliver electricity as basic services.
If the Government has been running rural electrification programs, most of our people would now have electricity in their homes and their quality of life and socio-economic status would have been changed.
Our people have been misled for the last 41 years into thinking that electricity is provided by their MPs.
The government has been channelling the DSIP and PSIP development grants straight into the pocket of politicians instead of spending the money to provide electricity to our rural majority.
As a result, the country’s development is dictated by the performance of MPs out of their pockets.

Lucas Kiap, Via email