Locals outraged over MP’s absence

National, Normal
Source:

The National, Monday February 10th, 2014

 By JAYNE SAFIHAO

SCHOOL is yet to start for students from the remote Josephstaal area in Middle Ramu, Madang, due to bad roads.

Among the topics discussed last Friday at the Catholic Archdiocese was the complete lack of interest from MP Tommy Tomscoll towards assisting the church to upgrade roads leading to the station.

Service providers from the public and private sectors attended the meeting to express their concern and frustration at the government’s negligence of the 16,000 people in this local level government area.

Local leaders, including chairmen of school boards and the LLG president Anton Karukai, said their MP’s absence from the electorate since he took office meant basic services such as roads continued to deteriorate.

Teachers, in particular, said they had not been able to start the school year due to the terrible conditions of the Bogia/Josephstaal Road.

William Kokojopa, board chairman of the Josephstaal Primary School and Dominic Rozomsi, headmaster of Katiati Primary School, told the meeting that they were having difficulties moving their teachers to the area due to the bad state of the existing road and which had made it almost impossible to use.

The Bogia/Josephstaal road has been gazetted by the government as a national road but it has been neglected, resulting in the poor status of government services in the area.