Lands confident of giving home scheme titles

 THE Department of Lands and Physical Planning is confident that it will deliver the land titles in the Government’s affordable home programme, Secretary Romilly Kila-Pat says.

Kila-Pat said it was an important Government intervention as far as land and affordable housing were concerned.

“It’s been an issue for a long time.Many of our public servants are living in environments that are difficult,” he said.

“A lot of them perform very important roles and responsibilities and we expect them to do so under such difficult circumstances.

“This programme should go a long way in breaching some of those gaps in terms of workers’ performance and work environment.

“Two years has gone and we are now into third year and we need to get the ball rolling. With the deadline around Independence Day in September, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill will hand over these titles.

“We need to work and meet this target, and deliver these titles. 

“I need officers to be physically out there in the field doing inspections, surveying, planning – that is the real nature of this department.”

Meanwhile, executive director of Office of Urbanisation Max Kep said Physical Planning and Economic Planning should come together for any projects like the affordable homes to be successful.

“We have to plan the land resources as well as the economic resources to make them work together. This is the partnership that must start from now and continue into the future.

“Even before you have the housing, you must have land and that’s the biggest challenge. We are making some progress on this scheme as there is some coordination going on between all the different stakeholders.”