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Govt to repossess undeveloped plots
2006-05-31 08:07:30
By Judica Tarimo
The government has unveiled plans to revoke title deeds for plots in Mbezi, Tegeta and Boko residential areas in Dar es Salaam that have not been developed.
The new drive is intended to meet rising housing demand in the city, which has come under increased pressure as a result of rapid population growth vis-à-vis slow expansion amenities.
’The directive comes into effect today. Nobody will be allowed to develop the plots after this,’ Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements, Salome Sijaona told reporters in Dar es Salaam yesterday.
The decision follows the government’s ambitious plan to allocate plots to potential developers in Dar es Salaam and the rest of the country to ease housing demand.
Regulations governing land allocations require buyers of plots to develop them within 36 months of acquiring them by building houses, the PS said.
Sijaona said the government has powers to revoke ownership of any plot if the owner fails to develop them within the stipulated period.
’We have taken aerial photographs of the areas and discovered that most of the plots are not developed,’ she said.
The ministry has discovered 495 undeveloped plots in block G, which are now lined-up for repossession and subsequent re-allocation, Sijaona said.
’But assessment of the other areas is incomplete,’ the PS said.
She said the ministry has begun issuing quit notices to owners of Mbezi, Boko and Tegeta plots to inform them of the imminent revocation.
’While legal procedures are being sorted out before eventual repossession of the plots, the ministry will issue notices to current owners to inform them of the imminent government decision,’ Sijaona said.
’After 90 days, the plots will have changed ownership,’ she said.
The ministry said the owners of the plots in question acquired them between 1989 and 1999.
’It’s almost 20 years now, but they (owners) have not taken trouble to develop them as required by the law and this fuels land disputes and corruption in the allocation and distribution of lands,’ the said.
The government has embarked on plans to improve housing and speed up property development and stamp out corruption amongst land officials resulting from double allocations.
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