Dodoma — THERE was no favouritism in the allocation of surveyed plots at Gezaulole, Temeke municipality as the process was strictly based on merit.

The Deputy Minister for Land, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Goodluck ole Medeye, told Parliament yesterday while responding to Kilwa Member of Parliament, Murtaza Mangungu (CCM), that all political bigwigs allocated plots benefited on merit and not favouritism as alleged by some Dar es Salaam residents.

"The municipality had 1,800 surveyed plots on offer but applications were a record 16,000 which is why many people did not get the land," ole Medeye said. In his main questions, Mr Mangungu wanted to know what was the ministry doing to address the problem of availability of surveyed land in the country and what were major hurdles in ensuring that the exercise is speeded to meet growing demand of surveyed plots in the country.

"Because of different measures taken by the government to make sure that all land is surveyed in the country, so far 10 per cent has been surveyed and the exercise continues," the minister added.

He pointed out that as the process of surveying 90 per cent of the remaining un-surveyed land is being addressed, some 11,261 villages out of 11,817 registered villages countrywide have had their borders marked while 1,200 have land use plans.

"Some 230,671 ordinary farms are targeted for surveying and 179,195 customary title deeds are expected to be issued," ole Medeye said. Among problems which the ministry and district councils are facing in the exercise, ole Medeye said lack of resources including poor budget allocation, lack of qualified personnel, surveying equipment hence the slow pace of implementation.

"In order to address these shortfalls, the Ministry has requested for a special permit to employ directly from school, graduates of applicable disciplines and also establish a land fund as per section 173 of the 1999 Land Act No. 4," he pointed out.

The Ministry is also implementing a Land Use Plan of 2011 to 2031 with an allocation of 4.58bn/- during the current fiscal year to address land surveying, planning and allocation activities.