The Parliamentary Committee on Land, Tourism and Natural Resources has expressed disappointment over the failure by Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlement Development to come up with a lasting solution to the ongoing land disputes in the country.
In a meeting held in Dar es Salaam this week between the Committee
members and ministry officials, the former challenged the latter to be
creative in order to find the best way of dealing with the land clashes.
The ministry officials were accompanied by Deputy Minister
Angelina Mabula (pictured) and Permanent Secretary Yamungu Kayandabila.
Most of the Committee members expressed disappointment after the
Commissioner of Land, Mary Makondo, presented her report which did not
indicate how the ongoing land clashes would be resolved.
Special Seats MP Kuntu Yusuf (Chadema) criticized the report,
saying it only highlighted office programmes instead of coming up
with strategies to address the increasing land disputes which have
claimed lives and caused destruction of properties.
The Committee expected that the ministry would come up with
solutions to the ongoing problem countrywide but the report did not
mention anything on the problem, which has grown serious.
Member of Parliament for Kaliua Magdalena Sakaya and Chambani MP
Yusuf Salim (CUF) accused some public servants for failing to come up
with new ideas or methods to help resolve some of the problems facing
the country.
They said it was a shame for the ministry to ignore such critical
issues and demanded that they improve their report and come up with new
strategies to address the problem.
Another Committee member, Philipo Mulugo, blamed ministry officials
for failing to move with the pace of the fifth phase government.
For her part, the Committee chairperson, Dr Mary Mwanjelwa, said it
was meaningless to have in place the National Land Use Commission while
land conflicts were still increasing in the country.
“The Commission should be nullified because it is just spending taxpayers’ money while people don’t see its benefit,” she said.
She also expressed discontent over what she termed the ministry’s
slow pace in resolving land disputes which was one of the major critical
problems in the country.
However, deputy minister Mabula vowed to work on all the
recommendations, insisting that the government was taking action to
reform the land sector in the country.
“Shortage of staff and finance are among the major contributing
factors to land conflicts in the country. The ministry has already
requested for more 252 new staff to speed up the work,” she noted.
SOURCE:
THE GUARDIAN
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