COMMUNITY and church leaders in Wiru, Pangia, in Southern Highlands province, are demanding K50,000 from MP Peter O’Neill which they will use to fix their inaccessible road.
The leaders had warned they would accuse Mr O’Neill of deliberate negligence in delivering basic services if he failed to produce the amount they needed.
Cr Kellypo Yomenal from Undiapu village, former provincial government member Mogoma Perikoma from South Wiru and Pr Jacky Pia from Yakiliapu village came to The National in Lae recently to express their grievances.
The leaders said the people had been sweating it out for the last two month to fix the 50Km road and had appealed to Mr O’Neil to help them with the money to complete the road repair.
They demanded that Mr O’Neill comply with their request.
The leaders claimed that a road that was built during the colonial government reign was now covered with thick bushes and the bridges were dilapidated.
They also said small creeks had appeared on the narrow road because there was no underground drainage pipe.
The leaders said they were raising the concern on behalf of the 20,000 people in the area.
They claimed that people were allegedly dying of curable diseases, schools had been shut down and people were transporting cash crops, garden produce and store goods by foot for more than 10 hours just to reach their destination.
The leaders also claimed they have been denied their right to basic services as there had been no road access for the past 15 years.
“We (Wiru people) grow coffee, peanuts and other crops but we have no roads which we could use to transport our produce.”

 

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