Govt officers to deal with landowners

THE minister assisting the Prime Minister on LNG matters and land owner development issues, Francis Potape, will be engaging government officers to conduct consultancy with incorporated landowner groups from the LNG project areas.
He said that he would be engaging the local level government, provincial government and district public servants like the administrators and others.
He said it was the government’s responsibility to address many of the pressing landowner issues related to landowners and the only solution was by identifying the landowners and their ILGs.
Potape said he hoped to get the task going in the first week of next month which will start from the project areas to the pipeline and the condensation plant portion 152 near Port Moresby.
He said this in support of Minister for Finance and Treasury Peter O’Neill allocation of  K15 million to conduct the landowner identification process.
O’Neill told a huge crowd at Komo station in Southern Highlands that the government would make the funds available for  the excercise.
He said the exercise would also address the issue of having so many landowners in any negotiation process.
Through the excercise, ILGs would appoint a representative to negotiations and represent them in meeting with the state and the developers.