Deputy Minister in the President’s Office (Regional Administrational and Local Government), Mr Suleiman Jaffo.
REGIONAL and District Commissioners have been directed to treat land conflicts a key agenda in their consultative meetings. Deputy Minister in the President’s Office (Regional Administrational and Local Government), Mr Suleiman Jaffo, issued the directive here during a Question and Answer session in the National Assembly.
He was responding to Kilwa North Member
of Parliament, Mr Vedasto Ngombale, (CUF), who wanted to know government
measures to end land disputes between pastoralists and farmers in the
country.
He said that farmers and pastoralists in
his constituency have for quite long been involved in an endless
conflicts, threatening mutual coexistence. “For a number of years
pastoralists have been grazing their livestock in farms and also causing
environmental degradation,” he said, urging government to explain how
it was prepared to address the situation.
Mr Jaffo noted that in a move aimed at
checking the conflicts between farmers and pastoralists, the Ministry of
Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development had prepared Village
Land Use Plans to demarcate land for various activities.
Despite such plans, Mr Jaffo said that
farmers and pastoralists were at time contravening land laws, thus
throwing them into a neverending clashes resulting into killings and
destruction of property.
He said that Regional Commissioners and
District Commissioners who chair security committees in their respective
administrative areas are obliged to take the matter as a serious agenda
in their deliberations.
“I direct all Regional Commissioners and
District Commissioners to ensure that they give this issue top priority
in their consultative meetings. We must be firm and ensure that all
people are free to conduct their economic activities without any
interference,” he said.
He warned local government leaders who fuel such conflicts that they face punitive action.
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