DODOMA: THE Minister for Lands, Housing, and Human Settlements Development, Mr Jerry Silaa, has declared an intensive countrywide operation to uncover fraudsters and forgers in the land sector in efforts to bring justice to Tanzanians whose lands were fraudulently taken.
Minister Silaa said the program, an extension of the ongoing ‘Ardhi Clinic’ initiative, is in implementation of the directive by President Samia Suluhu Hassan to the ministry to ensure that justice is delivered.
He made a statement on Monday when he concluded the debate on the 169.6bn/- ministry’s budget for the 2024/25 financial year, which was later approved by the National Assembly.
“We will speed up the Ardhi clinic. We will go across the country; this time it will be known as Samia Ardhi Clinic. We will wipe tears off all Tanzanians whose lands were robbed,” he declared.
“My call is for any Tanzanian who knows that he or she has fraudulently taken other people’s land to return it before we take action.
This campaign is a directive from the President,” he added. This time the operation will be accompanied by the police force, whereby the suspects will be arrested, and legal measures will be taken against them if found to have engaged in criminal activities.
“We will continue with these Ardhi clinics, Honourable Speaker. Injustice and fraud in the land sector are rampant. We should listen to and address the problems facing our citizens,” he affirmed.
He said the law requires that people who seek justice in court must do so with clean hands, but there are fraudsters who forge documents and file cases to seek justice, which is wrong.
“The Civil Procedure Code, Order Number 37, provides for a requirement for giving interlocutory orders, but we have seen people with power and legal expertise sometimes go to court to block justice for citizens who have legal documents, preventing them from getting justice,” he explained.
He directed all land officers in the regions to fulfill their responsibilities well and to get out of their offices to serve the people in the field.
He informed that the land policy has been improved, with the number of declarations increased from 46 to 67.
“In this new policy, women’s rights have been taken care of to create equality in owning land between women and men,” he told the Parliament.
Earlier, when contributing to the debate, Dr Festo Dugange, Deputy Minister in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments), said the councils are authorities in charge of land planning and management.
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Hence, their ministry has been pushing these authorities to effectively supervise land issues. He said the district land councils sometimes could be far, but some conflicts can be resolved at the village and ward level. So far, there are 3959 ward land councils countrywide.
Their duties have been specified, but challenges include a lack of expertise and funds for their operation.
He said the government has directed council directors to offer training to ward councils so that they grasp knowledge on how to resolve land conflicts.
The government also directed the district councils to allocate budgets for facilitating ward land councils. “Many conflicts that have emerged at the village and ward levels have been resolved by these councils.
The government continues to strengthen these councils so that they deliver justice in land disputes,” he assured. Commenting, Deputy Minister for Lands, Housing, and Human Settlements Development, Mr.
Geophrey Pinda, spoke of better land planning, saying that so far, 10000 villages have had their lands surveyed.
He said out of the total, the ministry did land use planning for 4126 villages, and the government has continued increasing the budget to build the capacity of the National Land Use Planning Commission.
