Maravi

Ministry of Lands to establish land banks

Ministry of Lands to establish land banks
By Nomusa Michelo
Tuesday June 12, 2007 [04:00]

LANDS minister Bradford Machila has said his ministry is in the process of establishing land banks to meet the demand for the commodity. And Machila has warned that the ministry might repossess land acquired without following right procedures. In an interview, Machila observed that there was overwhelming demand for land. He said the ministry was trying to establish a land bank in order to meet the number of applications.

“Another thing we are trying to identify is areas of land where we can create land banks, not just for the farming community but also for people that have applied and are pending allocation,” he said. “There is a backlog of the number of applications made compared to the amount of land that is available. For sometime to come, this will be an ongoing pressing challenge for us.”

Machila also said his ministry was in the process of conducting a land audit, which was necessitated by the allegations about irregularities in land allocation.

“There were a number of properties that were being allocated and in many instances without letters of applications. In a case like that, where the Commissioner of Lands finds that procedure was not followed, it may be necessary for the Commissioner of Land to re-enter or even to cancel title,” he said.

“We also recognise that there are people who acquired land, put it on title and proceeded to sell it. So we are aware that innocent third parties bought from unscrupulous property speculators and again we will ask those innocent third parties to work with us to assist in identifying those who helped them to acquire the land irregularly.”

Machila said the information given by the third parties would then be handed over to the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) and the other investigative wings for them to follow up.

Labels: LAND BANKS, LAND REFORM, MINISTRY OF LANDS

posted by MrK @ 3:52 AM