GULU– The Democratic Party [DP] President General Norbert Mao has called for an investigation into the series of land being offered by members of the community to the government for the establishment of industrial parks.
Several districts across the country have since last year been offering land to Uganda Investment Authority [UIA] to establish Industrial Parks with a major aim of fostering and boosting business and infrastructural developments.
Recently, Pader district offered more than 100 acres of land to Uganda Investment Authority [UIA] for the establishment of an Industrial Park.
In Nwoya district, the community members of Punu Pa Min Owot, in Anaka Town Council have offered 500 acres for the same purpose.
Mao argues that whereas community members are giving their land to government for free so that development and businesses can get closer to them, there should be an agreement with government on how, apart from the future business opportunities the parks provide, the community can directly and immediately benefit from these investments.
“What privileges or direct benefits do the initial landowners and stakeholders get from the acres of land they are giving for development to government?” Mao asked.
According to Mao, there’s also need to investigate whether people are freely giving their land or they are being persuaded and if so at what cost.
Emmanuel Orach, the LCV Chairperson of Nwoya district says, for a district to stamp out issues of corruption and duping members of the community, the advice we give them is to go for a private public partnership where both have a win-win situation.
“We know that before land is given to the government, there should be an arrangement where the landowners will receive some money as compensation to the land they are offering,” Orach says.
In Acholi sub region, so far only two districts including Lamwo and Nwoya have offered land to government for establishment of Industrial Parks. In Gulu City, the Industrial hub being constructed sits on government land initially owned by Uganda Railways.
Our efforts to get a comment from Evelyn Anite, the State Minister of Finance for Investment and Privatization were futile as our repeated phone calls were neither picked nor returned.
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