Illegal settlement

Housing Minister and Member for Moresby South, Justin Tkatchenko said the taskforce is part of the Government’s plan to develop settlements into suburbs in major cities in the country.

“The Prime Minister has tasked me to be the chairman of the new taskforce for the settlement to suburb program. This Taskforce will find a solution to ensure that our urban settlements are looked after and relocated, readjusted, reorganized and redeveloped properly and correctly for the benefit of our people”, said Minister Tkatchenko.

He outlined that the taskforce will;

Madang MP Bryan Kramer says one of his 2017 election campaign policy was to address urban drift, hence the exercise.

Once known as the ‘Pearl of the Pacific’, Madang town has now become one of the most notorious centres in the country.

Now into its second week, the social mapping program was rolled out to address the escalating urban drift and lawlessness that has plagued the once peaceful town.

“We’ve started social mapping…up to 300 houses already in one area of Madang where there’s a settlement that turned up in the last 5 years on church land,” stated Kramer.