In what seems to be
a move under the operation to reduce escalating land disputes in the country, the
Director of Mbarali District Council (DCD) in Mbeya region Adam Mgoyi has
received a letter from the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements
Development that requires him to inform an investor who had acquired land
formerly owned by local people in the district to surrender it immediately, the
Citizen has reliably learnt. The Director Mgoyi said yesterday that, a letter which
has been written by the Commissioner of Land from the ministry headquarter, has
directed him to ensure that an investor surrenders a land portion of between
1,870 and 7,370 hectares which he had acquired to develop paddy fields in Kapunga
Rice project. “On Wednesday this week I received a letter that orders the
investor to return a land title deed which had guaranteed him legal ownership
of the 1,870 hectares of land which the government has now revoked his
ownership and directed to be owned by the local people”, Mgoyi said.
Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements
Development Mr. William Lukuvi
He noted
that, the area which had been acquired by the investor is among the many hectares
of land currently in dispute with neighbors and people living around the area. People
in the area have been insisting that, the government through the National
Agricultural and Food Corporation (NAFCO) had given to the investor a vast portion of land which
currently is in dispute when it was seeking for the land in the area for
investments purposes. Mgoyi clarified that, the government’s action which it
has taken of issuing a letter that requires the investor to return the land to
the local people, will be a permanent solution to the long standoff of the land
ownership in the district which has caused a mutual of misunderstanding among
users. Contacted for comments, the Commissioner of Land from the ministry Dr.
Moses Kusilika admitted to have been some changes the ministry has made
including to order the return of portion of land the investor had taken for
development and relocated to the local people in the area. He said in a
telephone interview that under the process, the ministry had withdrawn a land title
deed which the investor had presented to the bank for the sake of getting loan
for development and agreed with the bank after long consultations to verify
that an investor had a certain portion snatched from the hectares he earlier took
so that in his title deed should be accepted with the remaining hectares after
an evaluation was completely done according to the law.
No comments:
Post a Comment