Planner: PEC decisions not acted on

THE Morobe provincial administration is being blamed for the violence in Lae because it had not implemented provincial executive council decisions.
Morobe Physical Planning Board chairman Masam Som and board member Peter Seski said Morobeans complaining about Governor Luther Wenge and the provincial government not doing enough to curb crime in Lae must remember there had been PEC decisions that had not been implemented.
They made the statement as Lae recovers from ethnic violence that has left six people dead in the past week.
The situation is still tense but under control with the addition of extra policemen from Port Moresby.
Som and Seski said that in 2009 the PEC passed a resolution that sections of the city would be policed by youths from different districts.
They said failure to carry out these directives was a cause for the upsurge in petty crime and subsequent violence.
They said the eviction of squatters on state land must be done urgently. 
“Lae police also have received vehicles, uniforms and fuel from businesses, provincial administration, Morobe MPs and other donors and yet can’t keep petty crime under control.”
They questioned why newly donated vehicles were kept by police heads while regular policemen had no transport to move around in the city.
They said the Menyamya Security Services, which was engaged by the provincial government and walked the hotspots of Eriku, Top Town and market areas, should be revived as they helped cut petty thefts and hooliganism when they were in operation.
They were stood down following funding cutbacks.