Authority asks critics to respect Jiwaka

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
THE Jiwaka Transitional Authority  (JTA) has urged people with hidden agendas to stop painting a bad image about the region in the media.
Chairman of the law and order committee Billy Kolip said the authority was preparing the region to become a new province.
Kolip said some people who said Jiwaka was not ready to become a province in the letters to the editor’s columns did not live in the region and were trying to spoil the good work they had done.
He said they had fought hard for 36 years to get a new province and were now ready for the national election next year to elect their own leaders into parliament.
He said such negative comments did not help the 180,000 people in North Waghi, South Waghi and Jimi districts.
Kolip said if the critics had any alternative suggestions, then they should come forward and lead the way.
He said the Jiwaka region would soon become a province and needed the support of all Jiwakans to  develop the province.
He said the main idea of getting a separate province was to deliver goods and services to the people in the rural areas like East Kambia and parts of Jimi.
Kolip said in the past, the people were deprived of basic goods and services.
Meanwhile, he appealed to the JTA members to work together as a team.
He said some JTA members supported former chairman Philip Kapal while others stayed with chairman and Member for North Waghi Benjamin Mul.
Kolip said he did not know whose interest they were trying to serve by creating division among themselves.
He said  Mul and Kapal were yet to make a formal hand-over.