By Kebba Ansu Manneh
National Road Authority has promised adequate compensation for farmers and property owners in Central River Region.
This promise comes after news published on the progresses of the Lower Saloum District Roads Construction Project last week in The Voice Newspaper.
George Jatta, Technical Director National Roads Authority disclosed that the authority has completed assessment of the affected sites and has since send the names of all farms and property owners to Ministry of Lands to complete its evaluation of the properties,
He added that once Ministry of Lands completed this exercise all payments due to farmers and property owners will be given to them.
Last week, scores of individuals who spoke to this reporter in Kaur, Jambelly and Simbara disclosed that they have not been consulted on any payment relative to compensation and have since called on the Ministry of Works, National Roads Authority and CSE Construction Company to consider their situations.
“I can assure you that all the farmers and property owners will be paid once we completed all the necessary things we are doing. We (NRA) with the help of the various stakeholders and the local representative have recently visited these areas as part of the assessment we are doing,” George Jatta, NRA Technical Director disclosed to this reporter at his office.
He added: “We have completed the assessment and have collected all the names of the people affected by the road construction. Right now, we (NRA) have sent the lists of those affected to the Lands Ministry for evaluation of the properties and once that is completed compensation will be effected.”
Even though, the bold of landlords who spoke to our reporter remains concern on how and when the compensations will be affected as rainy season approaches, though the Technical Director could not sort answers to when exactly the payments will be effected.
“I cannot tell you when payments will be effected but I can assure that NRA will make sure all those who are affected are fully compensated.
“We have always been committed to the cause of those who are affected by the roads construction and we (NRA) have a very good record of honouring these payments,” NRA Technical Director disclosed.
He added: “If you were following recently, we have made payments to those who were affected by the roads construction at Basse bypass, Dimbaya roads among others. So, we want to assure all those who are affected by the current roads construction projects to bear with us and be assured that they will be compensated once everything is completed.”