Mayor blasts planners

Highlands, Normal

THE Simbu provincial lands and physical planning board is working alone, according to Kundiawa mayor Teine Sogan.
Mr Sogan said this after sighting illegal structures of buildings booming around Kundiawa town  on State land.
He highlighted this at the Highlands urbanisation workshop in Goroka this week.
Mr Sogan said Simbu was one of the five pilot provinces implementing new strategies to improve service delivery and therefore, “the provincial capital must adhere to every protocol and comply with every rule and law of the land”.
“However, the unstable position of the office of the provincial administrator and other underlying factors has led to the growth of illegal structures and squatters on State land in Kundiawa over the past 20 years.”
Mr Sogan also asked why a coffee factory was  built alongside the Kundiawa airstrip.
“People are operating at their own will, with no respect for authorities on the ground.
“When I raise the matter of the legality, I always hit the brick walls,” he said.
He said the Simbu lands and physical planning board was working in isolation of the town authority.
“We are becoming mere spectators as the authorities and people with influence collude to breach building rules in the province,” he said.