Dion praises province for stop-work notice

 THE East New Britain government and administration have been commended for issuing a stop-work notice to a company involved with oil palm development in the Kerevat-Vunapalading area in Gazelle.

Deputy Prime Minister and ENB regional MP Leo Dion said the developer concerned should comply with the stop-work notice to allow  stakeholders time to find an amicable solution to satisfy all parties.

Dion said the stop-work should be used by the provincial government and  relevant departments and agencies to check the company’s compliance issues like environmental impact studies, social mapping, land identification study and statutory approval conditions compliance.

He said they already had an Integrated Agriculture Project Steering Committee, with representation from relevant departments. 

It should be proactively performing its core mandated role of monitoring project progress and particularly compliance with conditions of approval and development policies, Dion said.

One of these policies for the provincial government was to restrict oil palm to virgin forest cleared areas. 

He said he was concerned about this general trend in the country.