East Sepik to set up physical planning board

The East Sepik will soon have a provincial physical planning board established following the successful national land board meeting in Wewak last week.
Governor Allan Bird said after 11 years of waiting, the people of East Sepik were grateful to have the land board meeting in their province.
“East Sepik has not had a land board in 11 years so I requested one as soon as I got elected,” he said.
“Lands Minister Justin Tkatchenko was very supportive and helped us to get it going. The board sat through for two weeks and delivered on many applications.
“The Sepik people are appreciative of the board sitting in Wewak. Most of all it’s an independent board so the decisions they make will definitely be fair and impartial.
“I have spoken with the minister and thanked him and the board.
“We expect to get the provincial physical planning board up and running but we are considering inviting the National Land board to sit either annually or every two years to consider applications from ESP.
“The idea of an impartial board making decisions is very attractive and we are considering it.”
Tkatchenko said the department was working with provincial governments to address land issues and East Sepik was one of them.
He said Bird had approached the department to hold the meeting in the province to address outstanding land issues dating back to 30 years.
Bird said the meeting was long overdue for the province.
The cost for the land board meeting in Wewak was shared between the provincial government and the Department of Lands.