A Honiara resident, John Keha, has questioned and challenged the Honiara City Council to keep a promise it made in January that it will introduce and enforce by-laws against betel nut chewers for spitting in areas used by the public in Honiara.

Mr. Keha said that during the public clean up campaign in January the leaders of the council's clean up campaign said that they were going to bring in shortly their proposed anti betel nut legislation and that people who did not comply with those by-laws would be fined.

John Keha stated that 2008 is coming to an end however nothing has been done about the promises made by the Chairman of the campaign committee, Mr. Tom Lolemae.

Mr. Keha said that at the height of the clean up campaign, Mr. Lolemae said that the council were working on plans to implement by-laws against betel nut chewers who are destroying the image of Honiara by spitting the betel nut juice in public areas.

"Many people have been waiting for this and many hope that this is not just lip service but something that is going to be done about the bad practice," said Mr Keha.

Mr Keha also questioned the Council on the money that was collected in various taxes and allocated to the council by the Government when the council said that they could not implement their plans because of lack of resources, particularly that of finance.

"There haven't been major developments in Honiara under the responsibility of the council and the roads under the council areas and the drainage system is very poor," said Mr Keha.

He said that the members of the public should really question the council on how it is spending all the money it has collected to help look after public services in Honiara because it has been very poor.

Mr. Keha said that the town is very dirty and he has no doubt that the people of Honiara were prepared to cooperate with the council in its efforts to keep Honiara clean. It is important that the council introduces these littering by-laws particularly against all the betel-nut chewers who are making a mess of our public space areas.


National Express