Livingstone council upsets land applicants

Thu, 06 Jul 2017 08:14:09 +0000

By ANDREW MUKOMA

LIVINGSTONE residents have taken a swipe at the Livingstone City Council over its decision to charge land applicants on the Livingstone- Lusaka Road a lump sum of K20, 000 a plot. On Friday, the council printed out the list of successful applicants who applied for plots and asked them to pay K20, 000 each for the plots. But the move by the the council has riled residents who have since demanded for justification on how the council arrived at that figure.

In an interview with the Daily Nation in Livingstone one of the affected applicant, Mr. Elias Mwila said the decision to charge that much and further give Wednesday as the due date would only favour the rich. Mr. Mwila who is Livingstone Patriotic Front (PF) constituency chairman said that a lot of people would not afford the proclaimed fees. “The reason they are giving is that the plots are bigger in size but the problem is that the money will not be paid in instalment.

They want all the amount to be paid in cash there and then,” he said. He said that process will be done on first come first serve adding however that this will bring a lot of talking. Another resident Captain Robert Mukengami said that even if the council wanted to raise funds that was not the way togo about it are Captain Mukengami who is UNIP provincial chairperson said that the council should have consulted the general public and applicants before imposing the K20, 000 fee on people.

“This is why I am calling for the enactment of information Bill because once its enacted, you can take the council to task over that,” he said.