Politics

GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS TO BE TITLED, SAYS LANDS MINISTER


BY JOHN KOMBE
GOVERNMENT will implement a national titling exercise for all government institutions in order to curb encroachment, Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Elijah Muchima has said.
Mr. Muchima made the observation during a familiarization program convened between Chalimbana University and the Coalition of African Parliamentarians Against HIV and AIDS (CAPAH) of Zambian parliamentarians at Chalimbana university on Sunday.
The meeting was meant to farmiliarise the parliamentarians with the education programs at the university.
Mr Muchima said that the increasing land encroachment on government institutions was a matter of great concern.
He said that people had continued to encroach on land belonging to government institutions, a thing he said, the government was committed to resolve.
The minister said that one way of curbing the illegalities would be to put all government institutions on title and that his ministry would therefore issue further pronouncements by the end of this week on the matter.

He further assured Chalimbana University management that government would help to accelerate the issuance of a title deed for the institution which has no title despite being in existence since 1938.
This was after Chalimbana University Vice Chancellor (VC), Geoffrey Tambulukani, appealed to government to help the institution acquire land title.
Dr. Tambulukani disclosed that the university management has severally engaged the traditional leadership in the area for consent but this has not yielded any positive results.
He said that the lack of land title for the 234 hectare piece of land has hindered infrastructure developments such as construction of student accommodation and staff accommodation, among others.
Dr. Tambulukani observed that land title was key in improving the infrastructure development at the institution and hence his appeal to the government. He said that the infrastructure currently in use was old and does not match the university status of the institution.
He was therefore hopeful that the government would help the institution to acquire the land title that would help the institution to undertake infrastructure development through various avenues including Private Public Partnerships (PPP).
He said that these initiatives cannot be feasible in the absence of a land title.

Meanwhile, National Assembly first deputy speaker, Malungo Chisangano observed that Chalimbana University has continued to initiate programs that responded to the needs of society.
She cited entrepreneurship training for youths as one such positive initiative.
She however bemoaned the many challenges that the university was facing and implored the Zambian lawmakers to help resolve the many challenges at the university.

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