No clear word on Jiwaka’s capital

THE issue of where to locate Jiwaka’s provincial capital is far from over.
The Department of Lands and Physical Planning is not doing enough to advise the Jiwaka government on what to do to resolve the issue.
Legally, the provincial government has the power to decide on where the provincial headquarters will be located, in consultation with Lands and Physical Planning to ensure conformity with established processes and procedures.
The Organic Law on Provincial and Local Level Government is silent on the matter.
Nonetheless, no law was passed regulating the location and establishment of a provincial capital. Most provincial headquarters today were determined by the colonial administration.
At most times, the colonial administrators decided on a central location in consideration of the topography, distribution of hamlets and population.
A case in point is Western Highlands.
Kiaps selected Mt Hagen to be the district headquarter of both Wabag and Minj or Waghi Valley which were then known as sub-districts because Mt Hagen was in the central.
After the decentralisation of provinces, Wabag became the provincial capital of Enga because it was central to Wapenamanda, Porgera, Kompiam and Laigaip. Mt Hagen remained the provincial headquarters for Western Highlands.
The issue now is, after the formal separation of Jiwaka from Western Highlands, Minj remained the major district in the entire Waghi Valley and could have automatically been declared the provincial capital of the new Jiwaka, however, that was never the case.
Banz town is the alternative headquarters for Jiwaka, if it was not Minj. Banz only served once as the administrative centre during the transitional period prior to Jiwaka gaining full status as a province.
In other words, Banz lost its lane on the race on where to establish Jiwaka’s headquarters.
The toss in the last 10 years was between Kurumul and Minj.
The difference is Kurumul was newly-established and Minj is an old rundown State-owned castle. Most government facilities are found in Minj.
We need both the legal and technical clearance from the Department of Lands and Physical Planning to clear the air on which locality is fit to become Jiwaka’s provincial headquarters.

Andy Brum
Angenmol-Minj