Fredrick JEJERI

Locals from Wain and Erap Local Level Government (LLG) area in Nawaeb District, Morobe are facing double burden on road access after the disaster hit the area. The burden on accessing road services came after the area faced continuous heavy rains. Landslides disrupted road access to Erap and Wain since last Friday that blocked off vehicles from moving in and out of the areas. A landslide at Mungkip village had blocked the road access from Kumrik to Mumu River. In Erap, landslide cut off road access at Kasuka and Qwanamang areas, and in Wain, landslides blocked off road access at Perry village including roads leading to Popof village and towards Busu Bridge. Morobe Provincial works division was engaged to work on clearing the landslides, and the work already commenced from the Wain area. Unfortunately, locals from Mungkip village took advantage of the situation and made demands to the district to pay them before new access roads could be built. Two different groups from the same village have pushed their demands for the district to pay them before new roads could be built. At Kasuka, locals demanded K250, 000 before the new cut road could be constructed to link up with the main road from Wain. At Kumrik, locals have put a roadblock for vehicles not to pass through a portion of land that occupies their cash crops, but imposed a K50 fee to each vehicle operators to pay before they could access the area. A landowner, Jack Febe at Mungkip village, whose area has the only bit of space for vehicles to access, said they cannot allow vehicles to pass through as they have valuable cash crops and it's a residential area. "We will not allow any vehicles to pass through our residential area. In order to allow temporary access for vehicles, the district or the provincial government has to pay us K20, 000 before we can allow clearance to work on temporary access in our area." "In the meantime, we will close the area. But if vehicle operators insist to travel through, then they will have to pay K50 before we can allow the access, " Febe said. At the Kasuka landslide area where Allied PNG Group Ltd is working on a new cut road to link the main road, different groups of locals within the same village demanded the contractor and the district to settle them K250, 000 before work can continue. A community leader, Warin Tako, who spoke on behalf of the locals who demanded the K250, 000, said the matter has been discussed with the district administration, and they are aware of the matter. District administrator Mr. Buds Botike said his office is aware of the matters and will be attending soon to address them. As these demands for money continue into the second week, people from the hinterland areas of Wain and Erap continue to struggle to move their valuable cash crops to the main access road and eventually to the markets.

Four Local Level Government (LLG) Presidents in Bulolo district of Morobe province have petitioned their current member for parliament and the administration to respond to issues they see affecting the flow of basic services in the area. Long time serving Council President, Mr. Waka Daimon said that four major points have been raised by the four council presidents. "Firstly, we oppose the current MPs statement to retrieve machineries and vehicles from LLG presidents, LLG managers and police in the district," he said. "We strongly oppose the MPs statement as these vehicles were bought by the District Development Authority and the former MP late Sam Basil." "There were meeting minutes and resolutions being passed during the former MPs time, and the transfer of ownerships are now in our positions," Waka said. Waka's statement is in response to the current district MP Sam Basil Jnr's statement on retrieving vehicles currently in council presidents' positions, which got published in the two daily newspapers. Waka said the second point is on district office operations where the District Administrator (DA) fails to operate. "The district administrators have sworn oaths to serve districts under the Public Service Management Act. However, our DA has been operating outside of the district office and has not been attending to office hours," Waka said. He added that the third point of concern is on excluding LLG presidents from running DDA meetings, and the fourth point is the lack of prioritizing funds to LLGs to implement services at the third level government areas.