Stop the compensation nonsense

IT is time the state takes serious stock of the persistent landowner demands for compensation on land where major national infrastructure is built.
Such stocktaking should stop nothing short of introducing legislation to outlaw false and spurious claims and to stringently reinforce existing legislation.
A review of the various levels and kinds of compensation demands against the state should not be too far behind the stock-take.
Policy changes will be required, along with legislative changes, and a hardline stand will be necessary to ensure compensation claims are legal and reasonable.
All land, where important national infrastructure stands, ought to be compulsorily acquired.
At present compensation claims are outrageously unreasonable and, in many instances, illegal and illegally forced upon state instrumentalities by those concerned.
Time and time again, we have seen the state held to ransom by a group of belligerent individuals who will block roads or stop classes or close health centres as they demand huge amounts in compensation for land upon which these facilities are built.
And, time and time again, we have seen government agents scurry back and forth trying to meet the demands.
Now the law firms have got into the clockworks so that they, too, are party to raiding the national coffers since they would most normally add their fees to the total compensation demanded of the state.
The courts, too, have got involved as well and will award massive claims to landowners, most often because the state is under-represented or never represented in court by its lawyers.
There must come a time, and soon, when the state has to put its foot down and tell the people that they just cannot have their cake and eat it. It is either they want government infrastructure to improve their lives or they do not.
Take the people living on both sides of the Highlands Highway in Chimbu.
Upgrading of the stretch of highway through Chimbu alone has cost the state more than K100 million. More than half of this amount would appear to have gone out in false claims by landowners acting in concert with state agents.
Yet, if this national highway did not traverse through the difficult terrain that is Chimbu, many communities along its length and breadth would live a mundane and destitute life because of the barren land. Most would have moved away to other provinces already.
Quite simply, all national highways are supposed to have corridors of some 40m. There ought to be no building or gardens within these corridors. If they are on this land, they can be destroyed during road expansion work or for any other government services.
Anything that is removed within this 40m corridor ought to fetch no compensation.
People throughout the length and breadth of this country cry for services in the form of bridges, roads, school buildings and health centres. Yet, when the government allocates resources to build bridges, people will ask for compensation for stone gathered by the riverside to build approaches to the bridge. For roads, they will ask for compensation for gravel and for every tonne of soil removed and for every plant removed.
The same goes for buildings. Trees chopped down for posts and other materials used in buildings must be paid for first before the classroom or health centre is finally completed.
A classroom that might be built for K50,000 is tripled when all these unnecessary extras are added on.
The same goes for every other government infrastructure in the country.
And, successive governments have merrily allowed this game to continue. That is where a fair sum of money is being spent.
It is time the government enacted laws and policies to stop compensation claims, to compulsorily acquire all land where national institutions are to be built after original agreement and a token sum is paid.
It ought to stop instances, like this week, when enraged men turned their anger on the office of the attorney-general because they claimed they had not been paid for claims approved by court.
They committed a crime and ought to be brought to court and made to pay for the damages before they are paid a single toea.
We have seen too much of this nonsense. Enough is enough.