Parkop gives K15,000 to settlers’ association

By JUNIOR UKAHA
KEEPING Port Moresby, the capital city, clean and conducive for business, investment, work and recreation has cost the National Capital District Commission (NCDC) K160 million since 2007, Governor Powes Parkop says.
Parkop said in the same period K130 million was spent on rehabilitating the city’s roads.
Parkop revealed this at the launching of the Morata 2 Golf Course Settlers Association (M2GSA) on Sunday at Morata.
He said, despite the municipal authority spending a lot of money to make the city clean and beautiful, people were still undermining its efforts by throwing rubbish and betelnut spittle everywhere.
Parkop said many people were migrating into the city and were making it their homes but they were not taking ownership of it.
He said the NCDC was committed to bringing services to the people but the people must change their attitude for the better.
Parkop attacked the lands department as a “department of corruption” that has given scarce city land to foreigners.
He committed K15,000 to the settlers to kick-start their association and said he would write a recommendation letter to support the settlers in acquiring the land on which they were squatting.
He, however, warned the executives of the group to be careful on how they handled the finance of the group, saying many previous community associations had failed to achieve their objectives because of power struggles and mismanagement.
Association secretary Joe Fokate thanked Parkop for his presence.
Fokate said the place they were living in was called portion 221 but they wanted it subdivided into sections and allotments so that they could own titles to the land they lived on.
He said they were ready to pay tax for the services they used and wanted to be integrated into the city’s development plans