Lukuvi urges fair compensation to land victims

THE Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Mr William Lukuvi, has urged land and urban planning officers to ensure that they grant fair compensation as required by the law to residents who are removed by authorities for development projects.

The Minister made the remarks in Mwanza city during discussions with both Mwanza and Ilemela Municipality officials on land issues, which were also attended by the Acting Mwanza Regional Commissioner, Mr Baraka Konisaga, and Mwanza Region Administrative Secretary (RAS) Mr Faisal Issah.

He also urged them to ensure that they sell plots and distribute them to low income residents by giving their title deeds so as to avoid unnecessary conflicts, instead of selling them to people with higher incomes.

“My problem with councils has always been how they grant compensation as required by the law, when they are removing people from their areas,” he said.

Giving an example, the Minister said in Lindi Region, at the beach area, one resident was removed by the council and granted compensation of 400,000/- and later the same area was sold to a businessman at the cost of 9m/-.

“Under normal circumstances it is impossible to make such a compensation, which creates hatred as people hate their government without any reason,” he explained.

Mr Lukuvi urged the officers to ensure that they survey several land plots and sell them to residents and their great emphasis should concentrate on both rural and urban planning in order to avoid unnecessary land conflicts.

“Survey many plots and sell them to wananchi. Your main interest should be on rural and urban planning, arrange your cities in a way you will not incur more costs in the future,” he stressed.

The Minister gave the clarification after Ilemela Municipal Executive Director, Mr John Wanga, presented his problem, appealing to him to help his municipality get funds for surveying plots at Monze area, near Mwanza International Airport so that they can sell them to residents in the area.

Mwanza City Executive Director, Mr Hassan Hida thanked the Minister on how he had actively participated in helping city administration to settle a land dispute at Luchelele area that made the residents in the area to live happily.

“Thank you so much, without your visit, Luchelele land disputes in which you participated in solving could not have ended because it was a serious crisis,” he added.