Government faulted on physical planning enforcement

Spokesperson for the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on legal matters Bright Msaka has faulted government over its failure to enforce the physical planning law.

According to Msaka, much as there is already existing law on physical planning, lack of enforcement on part of government has been a serious setback.

Said Msaka: “They have missed on a huge opportunity regarding the physical planning law, you know that everywhere in this country, people are building in places that everybody knows that should not be built.”

Msaka, who was speaking on the sidelines of adoption of Physical Planning Amendment Bill by the National Assembly, said government needs to seriously work on enforcing the law.

“The Physical Planning Act is not new, they were just improving on it but what they done in the interim period to enforce what already exist?

If you can’t enforce what already exist what chance is there that you are going to enforce what we are doing now?” questioned Msaka.

But Minister responsible for Lands Sam Kawale has cast out the blame by expressing optimism that the Bill will bring sanity when it comes to physical planning of both cities and districts.

“Physical planning has been happening mostly like in cities and towns but now we are taking it down to the districts.

This Bill seeks to go all the way down to the districts and be able to come up with a layout, just like we do in cities,” said Kawale.

Most quarters have been faulting loopholes in the country’s laws which has seen people erecting structures in reserved boundaries.

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