Booming population at oil palm blocks causing problems

West New Britain Governor Sasindran Muthuvel, pictured, says the population of pioneering oil palm developers in his province have increased and that is causing social problems.
“This social problem is caused because there are more than five families residing on an oil palm block that was initially meant for only one family,” he said.
Muthuvel said when World Bank and the government in the 1970s introduced oil palm in his province, each block was given to a family who came from all over the country to develop the industry.
“They lived in harmony. But now there are third generations of that initial one family living in that same block and income from the same block is being shared with almost five families,” Muthuvel said.
“So it is a great challenges and the provincial government does not have the capacity to address the issue, especially when the population we have now is about 400,000.
“I always call for additional districts because in Talasea, we have 300,000 and it is unfair for an MP to look after that and is unfair to give them K10 million and the same amount to districts that have 50,000.”
Muthuvel said they also needed extra funds to fix the roads linking the oil palm blocks to boost oil palm production in the province.