COUNCILS DIRECTED TO SET FUNDS FOR ‘OWN LAND USE’

 

THE government has ordered district councils countrywide to set aside some funds each fiscal year in order to finance “land use plans’ resolutions” under them, especially in villages which are rapidly becoming urban areas. The Minister for Land, Housing and Human Settlement Development, Mr William Lukuvi, said the move would keep off sporadic land conflicts rocking the country.

“Every village must have a land use plan as stipulated in the 1999 Land Acts Number 4 and 5,” he stressed, explaining further that the district councils must be responsible to generate the funds and operate at a cost of 22m/- per village.

Mr Lukuvi said the village land use plans should cite areas for various productive zones for agriculture, grazing, settlement, and market places as well as ones to provide services like worship buildings and playing grounds.

He said the exercise should be done keenly to ensure the plots are surveyed and title deeds issued in a bid to prevent future unplanned towns and disputes. The minister hinted that once the citizens are served with title deeds, they can use them as mortgages in banks to get capital and invest on their sites.

“Issuance of title deeds will enable the government to recognise genuine land owners and as well use the documents to acquire loans from banks and develop,” he pointed out. Mr Lukuvi visited Karatu at the weekend where he handed over Certificates of Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCRO) and other land rights to six villages at Kangdet village in the district.

He hailed the Ujamaa Community Resource Team (UCRT) for conducting a land use plan for the voiceless hunters and gatherers community there as well as pastoralists and farmers’ groups in the district.

On his side, the UCRT Director Mr Makko Sinandei, asked the government to consider increasing its lands budget to assist many villages to come out of poverty.

He argued that villages are currently subdivided into zones by politicians to the disappointment of donors supporting them, saying that : “A participatory procedure to save the villages out of the hands of politicians and introduce meaningful land use plans,” was the only way out to avoid problems.

In another development, the minister directed authorities in the district to protect the remaining 400 members of the hunter-gatherers community in the area to preserve their culture.

The marginalised ethnic group so far constitute barely 6 per cent of the population of Karatu District with a total of 254,000 residents, according to the 2012 census.

“I want to see the 700 plus acres of the Hadzabe land being intact,” Mr Lukuvi said as he cautioned land officials in the district to be watchful on changing the reserved land of the hunter-gatherer community into other purposes.