Oro farmers owe NDB K620,000

THE Popondetta branch of the National Development Bank (NDB) is repored to owe a total of K628,000 after local farmers took out loans for farming and other projects and could not afford to repay their loans as a direct result of Cyclone Guba’s in 2007, the provincial administration said yesterday.
Meanwhile, the Northern (Oro) province restoration authority (NPRA) is yet to respond to a submission towards the end of last year
from the Oro provincial administration requesting the NPRA to
repay the debts owed to NDB.
The NDB headquarters in Port Moresby is expected to make a statement today the NPRA could not be contacted for comments.
On Monday, more than 500 people that had been in care centres behind the Katereda
rural hospital at Oro
Bay after Cyclone
Guba petitioned the provincial administration to be relocated to permanent locations so they could continue a better life.
Acting provincial administrator Owen Awaita received the petition on Monday and said he would be preparing a provincial executive council submission to request the State to allocate blocks of land for this exercise.
As plans for relocation are underway Mr Awaita said the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) would support with food crop seeds and seedlings to grow on their new resettlement land.
“Landowner issues continue to be a setback but we must put our
people’s lives first and support our them that have been greatly
affected in past disasters and continue to do so at present,” Mr Awaita said.
He appealed to the public in Oro to let common sense prevail and ensure that the livelihood of people affected was a priority.