Review on city planning laws

 ETHNIC violence in cities is one of focal points of a review of laws on city planning and urban development being undertaken by the Constitutional Law Reform Commission (CLRC).

The commission is visiting provinces to gauge views on its review of laws on city planning and urban development.

Secretary Dr Eric Kwa said the commission was reviewing the Cities Act of 1971 and its relevance to current circumstances being faced by the country’s three cities – Port Moresby, Lae and Mt Hagen.

Kwa said the commission was currently on a two-day visit to East New Britain where it was consulting the Kokopo and Rabaul urban local level governments on how best to overcome future social problems that might occur in the two towns.

He made reference to the recent ethnic crisis in Lae and the displacement of a large number of people in the highlands region due to tribal fighting that had prompted the CLRC to focus its review on urban planning and management laws.

ENB acting provincial administrator Wilson Matava welcomed the review undertaken by CLRC, adding that the province had been pushing the concept of growth centres since the volcanic eruption and the implementation of corridor developments.

Matava said the movement of people between East and West New Britain would increase when the highway project was completed and authorities needed to ensure that mechanisms were in place to control the migrations.   

He said the need for the Internal Revenue Commission to allow provinces to collect their own goods and services taxes.

Matava added that the ENB administration did not have any eviction plans and new reforms would allow the province to better plan for urban settlements with the help of public utilities such as PNG Power and Water PNG.