By ROGERS KALERO
LAND meant for schools and recreation facilities has been given to private persons due to a lack of coordination between the ministry of Lands and the local authority, Kitwe Town Clerk Mbulo Seke has said.
This lack of coordination has resulted in irregularities as most public property is now in the hands of individuals.
Mr Seke was reacting to concerns by Nkana Member of Parliament Binwell Mpundu who said lack of coordination between the Ministry of Lands and the Kitwe City Council (KCC) has resulted in irregularities which needed to be rectified.
Mr Seke said Mr Mpundu’s concerns about lack of coordination between Ministry of Land and local authority was correct because the council had come across a situation where the Ministry of lands was not interrogating plans being submitted by private persons ending up offering land meant for schools and recreation facilities in Kitwe West.
He was responding to the concerns raised by Mr Mpundu who said there was need for coordination between the Ministry of Lands and the council to curb the illegal allocation of land in various parts of the constituency.
Last month, Mr Mpundu expressed worry about the illegal allocation of land in Mindolo and Kamakonde or Kitwe West and said the sad part was that, in some cases, the council say they are not aware of these illegal allocation of land because they were allocated by the Ministry of Lands.
Mr Seke said the concern by the Nkana MP about lack of coordination between ministry of Land and the council was correct , saying the council had written to the Ministry of land, but there was no change.
Mr Seke also said the council had not offered any plots in Kamakonde and Mindolo, but the areas were messed up by some members of the Residents Development Committees (RDC) some of whom were still being pursued.
He said, therefore, the Deputy Mayor who is Parklands ward councillor’s denial that the council had not offered any plots was true.
Last month, Kitwe City Council (KCC) Public Relations Manager Chola Mwamba warned unscrupulous people who were illegally allocating land in Mufuchani Township in Kitwe that they risked being arrested and prosecuted.
Ms Mwamba said the problem of illegal land allocation by unscrupulous land agents known as ‘bapungwa’ has been a thorny issue for the local authority.
