Deal with land compo demands properly

By Serah Lagdom
Although land ownership issues has affected road construction and infrastructure development in PNG, there are standard procedures that the Department of Lands and Works should resolve through compensation payment, Institute of National Affairs Executive Director, Paul Barker, says.
He said land issues were an hindrance for road construction and infrastructure development.
He said in most cases, the roads and land for other infrastructure were already acquired before Independence, with the infrastructure in many places having deteriorated since then.
He said where land was being acquired, and gardens and other private land were forfeited, it was only right that people were paid for the loss of their amenities.
“Although it needs to be within the standard and stipulated amount, and paid to the genuine landowner and user, and not to some false applicant (Waigani landowner).
“In most cases, the Waigani landowner who hovers around government offices trying to extract benefits from the loss of other people’s land, or who claim for payment, even when there is clear evidence of acquisition having already occurred, and payment made, often well in the past.”
He said understandably, where the infrastructure was to be used for the benefit of others, rather than local use (as with a local school or health facility), the landowners may expect some premium over the community’s provision of their own land to bring in local services for their own needs.
“This may well have been provided for a facility in the first instance,” he said.
He said when the State then chooses to give that same land away for commercial purposes, the customary landowners would understandably consider this to fall outside the original arrangement, and expect some engagement or participation in some revised arrangement.