XN000022-1996-02-07 — Page 41

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(a)

(b)

Answer:

Mr President,

(a)

(b)

whether Government will provide more manpower to the District Lands Office to handle the land resumption work mentioned above; if so, how many additional posts will be created; and

if the answer to (a) is in the negative, whether the existing manpower resources in the District Lands Office will be re-deployed to undertake the resumption work; if so, whether such a deployment will affect the normal work of the District Lands Office?

The various river training projects in North District require the resumption and clearance of around 465 hectares of private and Government land. 38 additional posts have been approved and a special team set up in the District Lands Office to undertake the task. An interdepartmental steering group is also looking at ways to further speed up land acquisition.

Internal staff re-deployment in the North District Lands Office has already taken place without affecting other normal duties of the office.

End

Lifts reserved for judges and staff in court buildings

Following is a question by the Hon Andrew Cheng Kar-foo and a written reply by the Chief Secretary, the Hon Anson Chan, in the Legislative Council today (Wednesday):

Question:

It was reported that the defendant of a case heard in the Wan Chai District Court sometime ago left the court building by using the elevator reserved for the exclusive use of judges and court staff in order to circumvent interviews and photo- taking by the press. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of the following: