Deal to fast-track land cases

By DOROTHY MARK
THERE are 30,000 current land dispute court cases around the country, says Deputy Chief Magistrate (Lands) Mark Selefkariu.
He said this in Madang yesterday during the memorandum-of understanding signing of the Madang land dispute committee.
Selefkariu said an audit was yet to be conducted to find the exact number of cases in each province.
He said once the audit was done, the land dispute committee would identify the status of the cases and plan to resolve the disputes, “because a lot of land fit for developments were locked in land disputes”.
Madang acting administrator John Bivi said Madang was attracting big developments and was bound to attract land disputes.
He said the province was also in line to get its provincial decentralisation of powers, which would ensure political and economic autonomy.
Bivi said economic autonomy would require land to be freed for developments – which would definitely result in disputes by landowners.
Anne Kiwar Lai, from Madang district court, said two long-outstanding court matters dating to the 1990s were the land dispute over the Gogol Bridge and Logging Point in the south coast of Madang.
Lai said these types of long-standing land court matters would now be fast tracked following the signing of the MOU.
Selefkariu said the registration of incorporate land groups would also be now processed under the provincial land dispute committee office. This means clans and family groups no longer have to travel to Port Moresby to register their ILGs.