Fraudsters high jacking the nation by demanding outrageous compensation for national roads may soon be a thing of the past if Transport Ministers Don Polyes 20 Meter Road Infrastructure Bill is passed in Parliament.
If you have ever travelled up on the Highlands Highway, you will see these houses and gardens that I can only describe as fake tiny shacks all along the side of the roads. You couldn’t even fit a dog into some of them. Many of them are less than 30 centimeters of the highlands highway.
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If there is a natural occurring landslip or anything blocking the highway and excavators are sent to clear up the road, the so called owners of these houses and gardens will demand that the government compensate them first and they don’t demand a few kina, they demand millions. They block the roads, they harass travelers, and they stone cars and try to ransack containers on the big riggs.
A small group of people can hold everyone at ransom - businesses, the government, community organizations, churches, just so they can make some fast millions.
Meanwhile the government has to continuously negotiate with these terrorists.Already the Government has forked out over K100 million to compensate such groups in the Highlands, especially in the Simbu Province. And it has recently come to light that many of this claims are false.
These terrorists have made the highlands so incredibly unsafe and uneconomical to PNG.
If the ‘Polye’ law (which is still being drafted) is passed by Parliament, it will become illegal for anyone to erect structures along the 20m corridor of any road or highway. This means you cant claim compensation along the roads in this country
Another bill that Mr Polye wants passed by Parliament is the Protection of Transport Infrastructure Act. Under this act road reserve land, transport infrastructure and others will be protected against damage or persons claiming compensation. Under the bill, if you wanted to claim compensation for transport infrastructure protected by the bill, you could get hit with K500,000 fine or spend 5 years sweating it out in jail.
Polye’s laws, if passed will have far reaching consequences, some positive and some maybe negative.
But one thing is for certain, the money that is now being paid to compensate these so called landowner groups, should be going to maintain the roads for the benefits of all Papua New Guinea. This law, hopefully will solve this issue.
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