Plan includes city owners

 By MALUM NALU

CHIEF Secretary Sir Manasupe Zurenuoc has assured Ahi landowners in Lae that they will be included in the new Lae City Authority.

He said that after Prime Minister Peter O’Neill met a delegation from the Morobe provincial executive council led by Governor Kelly Naru. With them were deputy administrator Patilias Gamato, Lord Mayor Koim Trilu Leahy, Ahi landowners and Lae MP Loujaya Kouza.

The bill for the new authority is expected to be tabled in Parliament as early as today.

Sir Manasupe said the Ahi people would have representation on the board of the authority. 

He allayed concerns raised by Naru recently about the powers and functions of the authority.

“We will have one Ahi representative on the board and a Morobean from the settlements,” he said.

“The board will comprise MP Loujaya Kouza, presidents of Ahi and Lae Urban LLGs, president of Wampar, president of the Lae Chamber of Commerce and an engineer nominated by the Institute of Engineers.

“What is now known as the Ahi LLG will become an Ahi Assembly for the people of Ahi, as there is no guarantee that an Ahi person will be a LLG president all the time. Tomorrow it could be someone from Finschhafen or Chimbu.”

Sir Manasupe said the Lae City Council and the Ahi LLG would continue to exist. “They will continue to carry on with their powers and responsibilities but municipal services, under the new law, will be transferred to the authority,” he said.

Asked when the bill would be introduced, Sir Manasupe said: “We’re keeping our fingers crossed, there’s only one more day of Parliament tomorrow. 

“The PM has promised that this authority would be set up by February.”