The development of land belonging to a tokatoka along the Queens highway for a residential subdivision has been put on hold because landowners want Fiji Pine Ltd to come clean on a lease renewal conducted on a portion of their land in 2016.
Clan member Renee Duguivalu of Tau, Nadroga, made the issue known to the Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama, during a recent talanoa session in Lautoka.
She claimed efforts to seek clarifications from Fiji Pine Ltd proved futile, despite numerous requests.
“Part of Nabou is leased by Fiji Pine and was renewed in 2016 for 50 years, subject to survey,” Ms Duguivalu informed the Prime Minister.
“It’s 2020 now, I don’t know if Fiji Pine can answer this, we had a dispute in our tokatoka because of the volume of area that has been leased by Fiji Pine.
I am here today because we have not been getting the answers we have been seeking and also, the bonus payout last year, we did not use our money as we were trying to save it and at the same time, to sort out the volume of area of lease by Fiji Pine because our land is situated on the Queens highway and we want to develop a residential subdivision.”
Ms Duguivalu said they would not be able to utilise the tokatoka savings for the development of the subdivision until the lease volume issue was sorted by the Fiji Pine Ltd.
Meanwhile, Fiji Pine Ltd general manager operations Asesela Cokanacagi said the case was a complicated one and they would advise the tokatoka to go back to the Native Lands Commission to sort out the ownership of the land in question.
