Dekena: No more dubious land deals

THE National Lands Board will not  process any more single applications for land acquisitions under the undeveloped land (UDL) category
Lands and Physical Planning Minister Lucas Dekena took this stand to give way for potential land developers to contest by applying to acquire any UDLs.
Dekena, in a press statement yesterday, said that this  approach would eliminate cases of conspiracies, collaborations and manipulations between cohorts and those having vested interest in acquiring UDLs through fraudulent means.
“The department,  under my term of office, will promote transparency and good management of land issues throughout Papua New Guinea,” he said.
He said most of the UDLs with single applications as advertised in the national gazette number G199, dated Sept 9, 2010,  had been withdrawn from the board’s agenda in its last meeting.
Dekena said that his department would  re-advertise these UDLs and encourage group applications.
The minister said that single applicants for any UDL would be discouraged because most prime land  in the urban centres had been acquired by individuals and allegedly sold to foreigners through suspected dubious deals over the years.
Dekena said that land was the best social security asset for Papua New Guineans.
As such, he said, our land should be meaningfully be utilised for long term benefits.
He urged customary landowners to moblise into Incorporated Land Groups (ILGs) to register their land, obtain titles and enter into long-term lease with developers, where the land would continue to remain with the landowners.