By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

FOLLOWING the announcement that upwards of 7,000 Bahamians are currently living without electricity, opposition leader Dr Hubert Minnis hit out at the government for allowing that number to get so high.

Dr Minnis also defended the previous administration’s programme, which provided relief to Bahamians with delinquent bills, and suggested that pensioners get some sort of concession from BEC in an effort to keep more lights on.

“A lot of people are having problems with light bills,” Dr Minnis said, “We had introduced programmes. When we introduce it, the PLP said we introduced these for political reasons, but no – we recognise that a lot of people are out there suffering, we recognised that over 5,000 individuals’ lights were off.”

The FNM had “recognised the impact” that no electricity would have on quality of life – including medication not being “secured properly” and children not being able to study or do their homework, Dr Minnis explained.

“We recognise all of that; we recognised that the quality was deteriorating. Therefore we introduced what we thought was proper to improve and maintain the quality of life,” he said.

“At that time, it was 5,000, now it’s over 7,000 whose lights are off. But if you believe in Bahamians why would it take you a year to realise that they are being impacted by not being able to pay their light bills. You truly could not believe in Bahamians and allow all of this to deteriorate.”

Dr Minnis added: “They now recognise the policies we had were the correct ones and now they are prepared to implement those policies.”

Noting the Water and Sewerage Corporation offers “special rates” to pensioners, Dr Minnis said a similar plan should be offered by BEC.

“These are individuals who have built this country to where we are today,” he said. “They have made contributions, they have toiled and slaved, ensured that we were educated, ensured that we got jobs; they worked hard for their kids and now they’re pensioners.”

Because of the “sacrifice they made for us to get here”, it’s time sacrifices were made for them,” Dr Minnis said.

“You don’t think just like the banks offer some form of benefits to pensioners, the Water and Sewerage Corporation offers some form of discount – you don’t think you should offer some sort of discount to pensioners and have some system in place so it’s not abused?” he asked.

“Water and Sewerage give special rates for pensioners, the banks have special line for pensioners. Even when you go in different parts of the world - the buses have different rates for pensioners, the train sometimes has different rates for pensioners. They recognise that this train or this bus would not have been here today if it wasn’t for them.”

BEC chairman Leslie Miller told Tribune Business, last week that the corporation has disconnected thousands of residential customers but is making efforts to return those persons to the grid by the end of the month.