LANDS Minister Gladys Nyirongo has said that her ministry is thinking of redistributing the large tracts of land owned by Zambia Railways (ZR) because of the many complaints received from people.

The minister disclosed in Choma yesterday that wherever she had been, complaints on the ZR land had been coming.

She said the ministry would soon meet the ZR corporation secretary to decide on giving parts of the land in the various districts to other developers.

This was after Choma district commissioner (DC) Nkolola Hazemba complained that most of the land in the central business area belonged to ZR and asked for the land to be given to the council for redistribution.

Mr Hazemba also asked the minister to open an office in Choma where people could pay their ground rates instead of Livingstone.

He also urged the minister to facilitate issuing of title deeds in Choma to decongest Lusaka.

Reverend Nyirongo said the ministry was decentralising by opening regional offices starting with the northern region in Ndola.

She said that could not be extended to districts because it could cause anarchy.

When she met councillors in the council chamber, the minister instructed councils to stick to the guidelines on the agreement with Government not to give land without authority.

Rev Nyirongo said most councils had ignored procedures and advised them to read the 1995 land circular regarding land alienation.

She also discouraged the practice of allowing developers to occupy land before getting a letter of offer and paying lease fees.

She would not allow people to also occupy land which had not been surveyed and serviced by the councils.

The minister also demanded that the councils should receive applications for land, but forward these to the commissioner of lands for approval.

"In case the council is not satisfied with the commissioners' decision they can appeal to the minister within 30 days," she advised.

Meanwhile, a traditional ruler in Choma has called on Government to help resolve the boundary disputes facing five chiefdoms in Southern Province.

Chief Singani made the call when Rev Nyirongo visited his palace in Choma.

Chief Singani named the five chiefdoms involved in boundary wrangles as chiefs Siachitema, Moyo, Mweemba, Hamaundu and Sinazongwe.

He said the land wrangles had been caused by undefined physical boundaries between chiefdoms.

He bemoaned the lack of beacons on customary land that could have addressed the land disputes.

Chief Singani however, noted that there have been three maps showing the chiefdom boundaries but stated that he was satisfied with the current map.

He said though the maps were available, the lack of beacons on the ground had culminated into disputes among chiefdoms as they were not able to interpret the message on the map to the ground.

In response to Chief Singani's call, surveyor general Danny Mubanga said his office had received numerous complaints over traditional boundaries.

Mr Mubanga said his office only had the 1958 maps indicating boundaries on customary land defined by the British colonial government.

He said there were no physical boundaries on the ground such as beacons, adding that the lasting solution to land disputes was the fixing of beacons showing tional boundaries on traditional land.

Mr Mubanga said the ministry of Local Government and Housing was supposed to fund the exercise of putting up beacons on traditional boundaries as the programme fell under that ministry.

He, however, noted that mounting beacons would be a lasting solution to the conflicts but observed that this was an expensive venture.

The surveyor general said as an interim measure to alleviate boundary disputes his office would send officers to fix beacons to be paid for by the council.