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Issue No: 625; 24 March 2001
The Native Lands Trust Board states that only 8% of the native leases in the Northern Division have been renewed. Today's Fiji Sun reports the NLTB's Northern Director, Emosi Toga as saying that only 80 leases had been renewed by the NLTB. He also stated that between 1997 and 2000, 954 leases had expired. This puts the renewal rate at 8.4%. Toga was responding to claims by the Fiji Cane Growers Association that it had managed to secure 1500 lease renewals through dialogue with the NLTB. The Association is the farmer's wing of the National Federation Party. Earlier it had high profile meetings with the NLTB and emerged to endorse the NLTB's plan for residential leases. See http://www.pcgov.org.fj/hot_press/no612.htm for the details of the NLTB's plans. Meanwhile the elections for the Sugar Cane Growers Council,
the statutory body representing cane farmers interests, are scheduled for 5 May.
The Council has 38 elected representatives and 10 persons nominated by the
government. Currently the Fiji Cane Growers Association together with the
nominated reps control the Council. In September last year, the Associations'
General Secretary, Jagannath Sami was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of
the Council. |
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People's Coalition Government - Fiji Islands |
