The stakeholders met in an emergency
meeting at the weekend to deliberate on the decision by the minister to
issue a directive in Dodoma last week. Speaking in Dodoma last week
during the debate on 2016/2017 budget estimates, Mr Lukuvi said that the
government would repossess all idle land tracts that are not being used
for any economic activities and offering to landless farmers.
“We have already started legal
procedures to see how this exercise will be carried out. Our aim is to
give idle land to farmers who need it most,” he noted.
In their meeting, stakeholders in the
lands sector underscored the need for the government to engage them in
each stage before issuing the directive which they said was likely to
create further wrangles.
Interim chairperson of stakeholders in
the sector, Mr Gombo Samanditu, said the decision by the minister to
issue a directive without engaging them was likely to fuel land
conflicts between companies that are legally recognized in the law
including owners of those plots.
“The minister was supposed to consult
experts in the urban planning sector for appropriate consultations so
that he could be properly advised over the matter to avoid any possible
land conflicts,’’ he said.
The interim chair attributed the Urban
Planning Act No 8 of 200, which is clear on how urban planning should be
done including the contribution of key stakeholders. “By issuing the
directive in the House, the minister went contrary to the law that
received blessings from his predecessor, Professor Anna Tibaijuka,’’ he
added.
He said when the plot is in the urban
centre; it is supposed to be part of human settlement and not otherwise.
He advised that it was high time Mr Lukuvi rescinded his decision and
met stakeholders immediately to deliberate on the issue.
At the meeting, one of the stakeholders,
Mr Wiston Mwakalila, who is an expert in urban planning, said the
decision by the government to sideline them was not good and that it was
likely to elicit various feelings.
He said urban planning companies were
identified in the Urban Planning Act and that they were working with
both local and the central government “Because of all these issues, the
minister would have spent more time to allow discussions to take part in
the best interests of the government and stakeholders Another
stakeholder, Mr Kiazuzi Joel from World Map Limited, accused senior
government officials, who he said were receiving bribe from owners of
urban planning companies, which complicated land conflicts.
Mr Lukuvi went on to say that despite
the process, it would be better if investors owning huge undeveloped
pieces of land would willfully surrender it to authorities to enable
more poor farmers to engage in agriculture.
According to Mr Lukuvi, there were some
land owners who misuse their rights of occupancy by sub-letting farms to
smallholder farmers at exorbitant rates of fees. “This is not
acceptable; we will repossess the land and give it back to farmers
because it is their constitutional right,” he vowed.
The minister directed district
authorities to survey all village land in the country and provide owners
with certificates of occupancy and title deeds to reduce escalating
land conflicts.
No comments:
Post a Comment