South Fly MP opposes proposal to split Western

SOUTH Fly will not support the North Fly district’s proposal to break away from Western to form a separate province, MP Seki Agisa says.
Agisa was responding to North Fly MP James Donald’s plan to form its own province, which emanated from a district development authority meeting decision that would go before the next provincial executive council and Fly River government meetings in Daru for deliberation.
North Fly’s decision came about from consideration of poor service delivery across Western due to its vastness in landmass.
While that was true, Agisa said the better way to approach the challenge was to push for the creation of more electorates in the province — a process that started with the creation of a few local level governments areas in the three districts — rather than pushing for a separate province.
“I acknowledge the concern raised by my brother MP Donald, we are equally concerned about unfair service delivery in our vast province, but the genuine way to approach this challenge is to create about three more electorates out of the existing three that we have that K10 million annual district services improvement funding allocations that would fairly reach our people in the province,” Agisa said.
“After the news went viral in the province, I gauged the views of my people in South Fly and all of them are against the idea, including our brothers and sisters in Middle Fly.”
Agisa said it seemed more likely that most provincial leaders would not support North’s proposal in the upcoming provincial council and PEC and the Fly River meeting in Daru.
“Why break away when we are bound together by our common natural feature — the Fly River — which gives us our identity as a province in Papua New Guinea,” he said.
“We should continue to stand together as one people of Western and collaborative to pursue our development aspirations for our people when they are grappling with hardships in social, health and environmental wellbeing brought by the Ok Tedi mine pollution on our Fly River system.”
Western Governor Taboi Awi Yoto earlier said that he had no intention to allow North Fly to break away.
Yoto said splitting the province would be a last resort.
Middle Fly MP Roy Biyama could not be reached for comment but his people indicated their disapproval.