LUANSHYA COUNCIL GIVES A 30-DAY ULTIMATUM TO DEVELOPERS

LUANSHYA Municipal Council has given a 30-day ultimatum to residents to develop their plots or face repossession.

The local authority would soon swing into action to repossess idle plots and conduct a re-allocation exercise in line with the law.

Luanshya Mayor Nathan Chanda said some plots which were allocated to residents some years back were still idle and that the council would soon get into action.

When land is offered, a successful applicant is supposed to start developing it within 18 months, failure to which the council would be at liberty by law to withdraw the offer.

Mr Chanda gave the residents of Luanshya exactly 30 days to develop their plots, stating that failure to do so would cost them their land.

He was speaking in an interview in Luanshya.

The Mayor said it was sad that there was over grown grass in places where the local authority had offered plots to individuals.

Mr Chanda noted that the council had allocated K15, 000 to each of the 28 wards to clear up the grass that had over grown in the areas that were offered to individuals.

"It is costing the council a lot of money to go and clean up areas where people have been allocated with plots. If within 30 days they don’t start developing their plots, we shall repossess and offer them to Mr Chanda

individuals," he said. The local authority, he said, would withdraw the letters of offers soon from defaulting residents.

Mr Chanda said the council was in a hurry to develop Luanshya, hence the need