Electricity Is Now On For The Extreme Poor In East Nusa Tenggara, Vice President: Don't Waste It

Photo by Yash Patel on Unsplash

JAKARTA - Vice President Ma'ruf Amin symbolically turned on the electricity to the extreme poor of Timor Tengah Selatan Regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

The electrical installation is one of the government's programs to solve extreme poverty in priority areas, said the Vice President in a statement from the Press, Media and Information Bureau of the Vice President's Secretariat (BPMI Setwapres), Monday, October 18.

"By saying bismillahirohmanirrahim (in the name of God), I declare that the program for the new installation of electricity for eligible communities in Timor Tengah Selatan Regency is starting to light up and can be enjoyed by the local community," said the Vice President after chairing a meeting in the courtyard of the Governor's Office of NTT, Sunday, October 17.

The vice president said that the people who received the assistance should be able to use electricity optimally and make good use of it to improve welfare.

"I want you to use it to the maximum as well as possible and still save the existing electricity, so that it can benefit children so that they can study well and regularly," he explained.

General Manager of the PLN Unit Main Unit for the NTT Region, Agustinus Jatmiko, reported that in 2021 there were 245 of the 278 villages that had access to electricity in Timor Tengah Selatan Regency.

"There are still 33 villages in the South Central Timor Regency, we are planning to complete the program next year and we are also building every day throughout the province of NTT," said Agustinus.

The vice president was in Kupang on Sunday to chair a coordination meeting with the ranks of the NTT Provincial Government in the context of reducing extreme poverty in five priority districts.

In NTT Province, the five regencies that are the priority for solving extreme poverty until the end of 2021 are East Sumba, South Central Timor, Rote Ndao, Central Sumba, and East Manggarai.

By providing access to electricity, people who are categorized as extreme poor are expected to be more productive with economic activities and help prevent stunting in children in the regions.