Special audit to verify idle land starts January

MAUREEN ODUNGA

Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development Minister William Lukuvi

THE Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development will next month conduct a countrywide land audit and repossess mortgaged land, farms and village land that have not been developed for a long time.

Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development Minister William Lukuvi revealed this in Dar es Salaam yesterday soon after conducting a surprise visit to the ministry’s Customer Service Department.

Mr Lukuvi noted that the exercise would enable them to identify the people who hold land but have not developed it for the purposes intended. “Some have grabbed some big portions of village land but nothing has been done to develop the land, while others used it as collateral to obtain huge amount of loans from financial institutions across the country.

All this will be addressed,” Mr Lukuvi vowed. He further said that there were people who owned farms but have invested nothing in addition to not paying the land tax.

“The audit’s completion will enable the government to retain the land for investment that will be beneficial to the government,” affirmed the minister. Mr Lukuvi directed the Commissioner for Land, Dr Moses Kusiluka, to establish a modern communication system that will enable their customers to obtain timely feedback.

“Establish a system in which one can be able to report their problems and get a feedback right away even as far as in the regions without having to report to the ministry,” he said. This system can include putting up a phone number, email address and social media platform that will enable people to send and get replies of their inquiries without going to the zonal offices.

Dr Kusiluka pointed out that currently the ministry had embarked on solving people’s problems through an electronic system. “In ensuring that we are attending to all people, the ministry has allocated Monday for Ilala District, Tuesday for the people of Temeke, Wednesday for Kinondoni, Thursday for all the three districts while on Friday we will visit the sites with problems,” said the commissioner.