Chief Justice calls for creation of additional provinces

The Chief Justice of Papua New Guinea, Sir Gibs Salika has proposed the establishment of two new provinces within the existing Western Province.

He made this call during the recent launching of Western Provincial Integrated Development Plan 2023-2027 in Daru.

This suggestion arises from concerns regarding the geographical challenge and management challenges faced by the province.

Chief Justice Salika stated that the proposed new provinces will be the South Fly and North Fly province which would include Delta fly and Middle Fly District.

“Now that we have the population in the north fly and south fly, we can create two new separate provinces,” he said.

Chief Justice Salika further stated that before this can be done he is appealing to all the development partners to review all the arrangements and contracts that have been signed before, so with this new development for the south fly and north fly province, they can have two separate arrangements and agreements accordingly.

He emphasizes that the resources allocated to the big Western Province can be properly divided with North Fly Province and South Fly Province having their own budget as a way forward to bring in a lot more development.

”Its such a big province in terms of land mass and in terms of travelling , logistics and difficulties that we have  in this province. We have no roads and the only way to travel is by sea, by rivers and by air,”he said.

Therefore he suggested the creation of two additional province with Western province.