By ZEBEDEE KUMPIO
MINISTER for International Trade and Investment, Hon. Richard Maru, has called on East Sepik Governor, Hon. Allan Bird, to fix the provincial roads in his province.
In a media conference today (July 9), he expressed his dissatisfaction on how the provincial government is overlooking the deteriorating road conditions in the province.
“Today, I want to announce the dissatisfaction of the people of East Sepik to the Governor and his administration,” Maru said.
“They (Governor and his provincial team) have done nothing to maintain all our roads for one whole year.
“No maintenance, no contracts out, nothing. Our people are now starting to walk, and this is totally unacceptable,” said Maru, who is also the Member for Yanguru-Sausia.
He said the province had a prolonged rainy season over the past five months, and all the provincial roads have deteriorated to the point where people are walking long distances to carry their goods and cash crops to access transport and seek other services.
Maru said that as a district MP, his responsibility is maintaining the local roads from village to village, while the provincial roads and the national roads and their maintenance should be taken care of by the provincial and national government, respectively.
“In my district, we have two provincial roads, one runs from Tangori to Koiboibus, and the other road is from Kusaun to Timbuabe, which cuts across my electorate and goes into Angoram district.
“These roads are no longer usable, and the same applies to other electorates in the province.”
“Every year the Governor talks about East Sepik being flush with cash, roll over after roll over.
“Only last week, he said internal revenue gone up to K60 million because of the high cocoa prices.
“East Sepik is the biggest cocoa producer in the country, and my Yanguru-Sausia district is the biggest single cocoa-producing district in the country,” Maru said.
“How is it that the farmers, who are producing this cocoa and generating the revenue, and their roads are not being serviced?”
The Yanguru-Sausia MP urged Governor Bird not to keep boasting about internal revenue made from high cocoa prices, and start looking into fixing the roads for the cocoa farmers to bring in more provincial revenue.
He said Open Members only receive K2 million from the K10 million DSIP for roads, and a district like his cannot sustain the provincial roads with that amount of money.
On behalf of the six districts in the province, Minister Maru is now calling on Governor Bird and his administration to immediately attend to the deteriorated roads in the province.
