Marat: ENB not implementing land laws

National, Normal
Source:

The National- Wednesday, January 12, 2011

 By ELIZABETH VUVU

THE delay and failure by the East New Britain lands division to enforce land laws in the district has directly resulted in numerous cases of land-related deaths.

Rabaul MP Dr Allan Marat said this during the dedication service of public servants in the district on Sunday.

He said a fight sparked by land matters was experienced recently on Watom Island resulting in the death of one person and inflicting of grievous bodily harm to people. 

He said the provincial administration, through its Lands division advisers had allowed their own conflict of interest to impair their judgments and deliberately failed to enforce land laws.

Marat said if the provincial administration was serious about enforcing land laws, officers with the provincial lands needed to shape up or ship out to make space for those people who were able to provide better service as public servants. 

He said the district’s population was increasing and land was becoming scarce leading to land related issues such as disputes and clashes that had  negative consequences and easily seen at present.

He said resettlers at Gelagela, Sikut-Talvat, Sikut-Matupit, Clifton, Asing, and Warena had been waiting for more than 16 years to receive their individual titles to their blocks of land.

“The longer the people wait for their titles, the greater the build up of pressures and it would be just a matter of time for an explosion of all sorts that the provincial government will not be able to contain even with national government systems.”

He said all the people of Rabaul district were only asking for issuance of individual land titles to their blocks of land in their resettlement areas.