Villagers asked to contribute money for laboratory facility

Poor villagers of Gamasara village, Nyandoto ward in Tarime district, Mara region are at risk of having their properties confiscated in case they fail to contribute the sum of money required of them in order to construct a secondary laboratory facility in their ward. A leader in the village has said that, each family in the village is required to contribute the sum of Sh. 20,000 as part of their contribution to facilitate construction of the laboratory facility of the Nyandoto Secondary school which is within their ward currently being supervised by Tarime Town Council. Speaking in a telephone interview early this week, the chairman of the Nyasebe hamlet in the village Deus Ngera confirmed that, village leaders including its chairman had received directives from the higher authorities in the district which required villagers to contribute to the construction of such a laboratory facility. He said, the amount of money proposed was introduced by all village leaders who had attended the meeting and that it was unanimously agreed, whoever fails in one way or another to accomplish the task without concrete reasons will have his property snatched and sold, but couldn’t specify what type of the property when asked. However, he further noted that, this is done in line with the normal procedures which usually occur whenever a communal development project is to be undertaken and which normally atre4 insisted by village elders according to tradition. Commenting over the issue, the Director of Tarime Town Council (TTC), Venance Mwamengo confirmed the incident when contacted last week in a telephone interview and affirmed that, each ward in his jurisdiction has been asked to arrange for themselves in collaboration with village leaders on how their people could contribute to this important development project currently being spearheaded by President Jakaya Kikwete.  

 “The move is part of the implementation of President Jakaya Kikwete’s order who has requested directors of all district councils in the country to ensure that, ward secondary schools in their areas are equipped with modern State-of-the-art laboratory facilities for students by end of this year”, he said. However, he said that his council will contribute 90 percent of the total cost to be incurred for the laboratory construction in each ward and the rest to be accomplished by villagers in areas where such laboratories are to be built. He assured that his council has put in place the strategic measures with a view to ensure what President Kikwete has insisted is accomplished on time, and that villagers’ contributions has to be included as part of the progress to boost plans. On his part, an official of the Ministry of Local Government and Regional Administration (LG &RA) Mohammed Mavula said in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday last week that, plans by the ministry to boost development projects initiated by local government authorities in the country remains intact. According to him, the issue of constructing laboratories for ward secondary schools in the country is a joint collective workforce which has to be assisted to some extent by rural people where these secondary schools have been constructed. However, he declined to elaborate why villagers as those ones in Gamasara village who have been involved to participate by contributing something and noted that, this is a decision by local government who have full authority that cannot be interfered with their developmental matters. The officer was contacted with a view to establish the legality of the villagers to be included to contribute money to be used for the construction of the laboratories bearing the fact that, most rural dwellers are faced with extreme poverty an aspect that are not able to afford. In response, Mavula noted that, every citizen has the right to contribute wherever appropriate for the national development project to every citizen is directly concerned regardless of their poverty stricken situation as the idea of national development concepts are well stated in national policies