Bialla

It was second time lucky for the Bialla boys after missing out in the cup finals in their inaugural year in 2022.

The big Cup decider was a thriller and played in front of an exuberant army of supporters at the Santos National Football stadium.

After a long process getting the shield, bowl, and plate finals out of the way in the early part of the evening, the main event finally got underway at around at 8.30pm last night with a handful of faithful rugby fans waiting on.

The four suspects include three men, Junior Issack Mango, Jimmy Lebut, Junior Mango and a woman, Francisca Damien.

The men were alleged for being in possession of the drugs while the woman suspect was alleged as the drug dealer.

Police found 1,408 marijuana packets worth K50 each totaling K70, 400. The first bag found contained 1008 packets of marijuana weighing 12kg, two bags containing 200 packs each and 2 marijuana clamps.

NasFund CEO Ian Tarutia has called on the community to assist authorities to help bring the perpetrators to justice.

“As the only superannuation provider that provides services in this part of the province, it is disappointing that criminal elements have seen fit to break into the Fund’s premises, and steal and destroy office equipment.

As a result, the Fund is now forced to suspend services in Bialla for an indefinite period, whilst police investigations are carried out,” said Tarutia.

A one week training was conducted at the Bialla health centre involving six health workers from six health posts in the district. The family planning training was conducted by the West New Britain Health Authorities with major support from the United National Population Fund or UNFPA. The training program focused on a simple procedure that does not involve an operation, on the male client. This procedure is deemed to be an alternative of a woman receiving Tubal ligation.

The Ivule Bridge, which connects Bialla town and the provincial capital, Kimbe, was washed away by flood last weekend following continuous rainfall.

Village elder Philip Kawagale said since the first destruction of the bridge in 1985, no permanent bridge was built.

He said their children will be affected as they will not be attending schools in Bialla.

Kawagale also raised concerns that the contractors contracted by the Department of Works to build the bridge are always leaving the villagers out in decision-making.

The Ivule Bridge has always been Mother Nature’s target during prolonged wet seasons, causing problems for commuters travelling to and from the New Britain Highway.

Wereh said currently there is an ongoing program to replace 14 bridges under the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and Asian Development Bank.

He said the Ivule Bridge is a critical bridge but has always been a problem.

“Our future plan is to talk to donors to extend the program where they can take these additional bridges in the existing program,” stated Wereh.

The temporary Bailey bridge that was set up was no match for the vicious strength of the river.

This part of the highway is at Ivule in Bialla, Talasea District of West New Britain Province.

It is the only highway that links Kimbe Town to Bialla Town.

It is not only important for the general public who travel to Kimbe to access most services but an important economic highway for oil palm company, Hargy Oil Palm Limited.

West New Britain Provincial Works manager, Aura Banka, says this is not the first time; Ivule has flooded and cut off road links before.

Acting executive director for the National Office of Child and Family Services, Simon Yanis, says PNG has a mammoth task in changing the mindset of people in respect to children’s issues.

Yanis was speaking recently at the first-ever integrated child protection training conducted in Bialla, West New Britain Province, through the Public-Private and Donor Partnership between Hargy Oil Palm Limited and the National Office for Child and Family Services.

They inspected the Bialla Health Centre today and were impressed on the scope of work done by the project team.

Apart from Kimbe, Bialla appears to be the only district town in the country that is growing in-terms of continuous investments in hotel and apartments, besides the rapid rise in shops, opening up of banking services and other business houses.

With such developments, health is of paramount importance to the administration of Governor Sasindran Muthuvel.