Leader slams compo

By ZACHERY PER
FORMER Kundiawa-Gembogl MP Wagi Merimba agrees with Prime Minister Peter O’Neill that private companies should be discouraged from paying landowners money to lift roadblocks on national highways.
Mapai Transport owner Jacob Luke recently paid K100,000 to landowners at Guo in Chimbu who had refused to allow the clearing of a landslide blocking the Highlands Highway unless they were paid K1 million.
“The precedent set by Mapai Transport is dangerous. In future, landowners will not allow work to start until someone pays them,” he said.
“Even companies will be expected to pay them money and the Government will take a free ride. A dangerous precedence has been set.”
Meanwhile, the Chimbu and Eastern Highlands sections of the highlands highway are facing threats of more landslides due to the heavy rain.
Sections under threat include Wara Tamba in Chimbu, Watabung and Daulo Pass in Eastern Highlands.
Civil engineering company Kaiaworks had fixed some of the landslide-prone sections in Chimbu such as Mindima, Tinenigle, Waingar and Guo.
Merimba said after driving through the highway section between Eastern Highlands and Chimbu, the Government should seriously address the highway problem.
He suggests re-routing the highway from Kamaliki near Goroka to the Ungai range to Siane and to Chuave.
“It will avoid problems at Daulo Pass,” Merimba said.