Hela Provincial administrator urges people to free their land for road development

Road access is vital for service delivery to rural communities and for people to reach essential services in urban centres, says Hela Provincial Administrator Marago Dagoba.

Speaking to a packed crowd in Tari Town last week, he said one of the basic services that is needed before any other service is road and bridge infrastructure.

Mr Dagoba was responding to a request by the locals in Tari who appealed to the Hela Provincial Government to prioritize the road network this New Year.

“The provincial government and the district development authorities are committed to constructing new and upgrading roads, but one obstacle that hinders this plan to eventuate is the unnecessary land compensation and infrastructure improvement payments.

“If you want road and see it as an important service that will benefit your community in the long run, give the land for free and let the Government step in to construct roads which many people are longing,” he said.

The administrator further elaborated that communities that will be living along the corridors of the roads need to communicate, agree, and let contractors do their work without disturbances.

He told the people that Hela has good fertile soil, and many people grow vegetables, and transporting them to the market needs transport, and with a good road, it will make their lives easier.

Mr Dagoba also urged the people who are roaming around doing nothing to return to their land and grow coffee and other agricultural products.

“We have the new Hela Unity Market. People cannot continue to import vegetables from other provinces and resell them. I encourage people to return to their land, tribal conflicts in many communities have ceased, people now want to live peacefully and want to be involved in agricultural activities,” he added.

He further said that youths doing nothing must attend Technical Vocational Education Training [TVET] centers, and those school leavers must upgrade their marks at the Flexible Open Distance Education [FODE] centre.

“It is good news that Hela is beginning to witness peace. 2026 must be a year for people to be heavily involved in agriculture, small and medium enterprises, and church activities. The bad name tag people from other provinces give us must be proven wrong one day, and that must begin by 2026.”