Equal distribution of lease money should have been done long time ago - Vuniwaqa

Money should not define us as a people and it would be a sad day if this happens.

That was the strong statement of Minister for Women and Children, Mereseini Vuniwaqa while debating on the report on the petition for the iTaukei Land Trust Board to review the distribution of lease to personal accounts and the land rent premised on Unimproved Capital Value.

Vuniwaqa says the equal distribution of lease money for the iTaukei landowners should have been done a long time ago.

Vuniwaqa also says new registered iTaukei members who are under 14 also have their money invested by TLTB and they are now young investors who would have never had a whiff of that money in the past. She says women also now have income as landowners however they may not have received a cent in the past.

Although Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says members of the landowning units want equal distribution, SODELPA MP Niko Nawaikula claims they should have consulted the landowners and TLTB.

SODELPA MP Niko Nawaikula

Nawaikula also says that he lives in the village while the government side live in the urban areas and do not know what happens in the villages.

Meanwhile Health Minister Doctor Ifereimi Waqainabete says they live in the urban areas because of the work they do.

He also stresses that equal distribution has benefitted thousands of iTaukei who do not have a chiefly title in front of their names.

Health Minister Doctor Ifereimi Waqainabete

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