Land mitigation team needed: MP

By PISAI GUMAR
MOROBE needs a provincial land mitigation process team that can respond immediately to any land matters with amicable solutions, Bulolo MP Sam Basil says.
Basil was critical during peace ceremony between Labu Tale and interior Bomatu communities over land boundary dispute in November, 2009 that claimed six lives and destroyed to homes and gardens.
He said if the Morobe provincial government was not mindful, it would experience continuous land disputes, killings and destructions to properties due to the increase in populations, new settlements and development activities.
“Provincial government must take an onus to create teams comprised of land mediators and government officers from nine districts that will devise amicable mechanisms for such situations,” Basil said.
“The team will then swiftly move into areas experiencing land disputes to stabilise situations, mediate issues and determine how the issue should be resolved amicably,” he said. Basil said that the provincial government, village leaders and people needed to be mindful and treat land matters with due care without taking the law into own hands.
“In this sense, existing land issues coupled  with new land matters will challenge developmental aspirations critically. Hence, creation of MPLMPT can best deal specifically with land matters.”
Basil was accompanied by Huon Gulf MP Ross Seymour and their families,” he said.