Wereh: Stop making unreasonable demands

By MALUM NALU
WORKS and Implementation Secretary David Wereh has appealed to people living near big infrastructure projects to stop making “wildly unreasonable” compensation demands.
He said the projects would benefit everyone and the Government right now could not afford such claims.
He was commenting on demands made to the Government by landowners after a natural disaster, as was the case in Chimbu last week. Locals wanted K1 million paid before work on a damaged section of the Highlands Highway could proceed.
“Compensation demands, especially up in the Highlands, are wildly unreasonable,” Wereh told The National.
“Compensation has become a huge industry. If we start paying people according to their demands, paying millions here and there, where is the money to build the roads? The Government has taken a stand not to pay any compensation.
“The Works Department is already looking at genuine claims related to affected improvements within the approved road reserve limits. Compensation cases are now before the courts to deal with them.
“We will only pay after being ordered by the court, but I’m glad that a lot of claims are being thrown out for want of substance.”
Wereh pointed out that the courts had so far cleared dubious compensation claims amounting to K78 million from Chimbu alone.
He said the compensation mentality must be changed if the country was to move forward.