Praneeta Prakash 
[Source: Parliament of the Republic of Fiji/Facebook]
The Ministry of Lands and Mineral Resources is working closely with the Ministry of Housing to address informal settlements that remain regularized on state land.
Director Lands Josefa Vuniamatana highlighted this while responding to questions before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.
He says while significant progress has been made in formalizing several informal settlements, some areas continue to pose challenges due to their congested layout.
“A few years back there was a government initiative in trying to regularize informal settlements on the state land. That was, we had some down up in the North and some in the Western division. They were regularized through those arrangements so that they can have some sort of leases and they’re able to pay some rentals to the government.”
Vuniamatana adds that they have introduced community lease arrangements to enable residents to collectively lease the land and pay rentals to the government.
“There are some informal settlements that because of the way the houses are set up, they’re pretty much close to each other and it’s almost impossible for us to carry out survey works. What we have done through those is to circle them up in a community lease so that they are able to have some sort of leasing through a community arrangement and they have them pay some rentals to the government.”
Vuniamatana reaffirms that efforts are continuing to ensure that all residents living in informal settlements on state land have access to secure tenure while contributing to government revenue through formal leasing arrangements.
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