Nipa sets up committee to maintain law and order

PEACE and good order committee (PGOC) members are playing the role of police to maintain law and order in the Nipa Kutubu district of Southern Highlands.
This is due to the shortage of police manpower in the district, according to district administrator Robin Pip.
Pip said about 120,000 people of Nipa-Kutubu had only two policemen based at the Nipa station.
He made numerous visits to the provincial police commander’s office in Mendi and also the police commissioner’s office in Port Moresby, requesting additional manpower for Nipa but the response had been poor.
He said as a result, the district had engaged the services of 19 reserve policemen and more than 70 local PGOC members who attend to tribal conflicts and other problems in an effort to minimise law and order problems in the area.
Pip said five years ago, Nipa was in the media for all the wrong reasons and was labelled as notorious and outlawed as politics-related tribal conflicts and criminal activities flared up especially along the Nipa section of the Highlands Highway into Tari and Hela.
Pip said that was now a thing of the past as Nipa was changing and moving forward.
He said everyone was taking ownership of law and order problems through the support of the joint district budget priority and planning committee headed by chairman and local MP Philemon Embel. 
Pip said the district, in its effort to improve its law and order problems while at the same time restore the good image of Nipa, had set aside K400,000 from the district services improvement programme (DSIP) to support law and order programmes in the electorate.
He said the PGOC members were paid K120 monthly allowance to attend and settle all tribal conflicts and law and order problems in the district.
Lower Nembi Plateau PGOC chairman Alo Sia said the members risked their lives, sometimes even camping in the middle of a battlefield  just to promote peace and harmony.