Almost 500 households whose structures are earmarked for demolition along the Njakwa – Livingstonia-Chitimba Road project in Rumphi, have complained that they have not received their compensation despite commencement of the project.
Three days after The Daily Times published about delays in commencement of the works, the contractor is setting up camp at Livingstonia.
Media tour for the project on Saturday, found that less than a kilometre stretch of a bush has been cleared within two days, while at the contractor’s camp, they are still constructing offices, fence and structures.
Speaking in random interviews, communities members complained that government is not clear whether the owners of affected property will becompensated soon.
Alice Harawa who has a shop at Ntchenachena Trading Centre said she just saw some men marking her shop but without any explanation. She said she hears from other people within the area that she is supposed to move although without any communication from government.
“We hear that our shops will be demolished because we are less than 15 metres from the road. Some say we are going to be compensated while others say we should just honourably move to other places.
“We don’t know what to do because this is our home land. We are doing business right here. We are told the constructions started at Livingstonia but no one has been paid the compensation,” said Harawa.
Minish Chigombera, a business person at Lura Trading Centre said his shop was also marked when he was away. He said since then, no any communication from government was made towards compensation or progress over evaluation.
Howeve r, Minister of Transport and Public Works, Malison Ndau, said government planned to compensate the affected households after passing 2016/17 National Budget.
Ndau said his ministry has set aside over K50 million for the compensation to the owners of the structures along the road but not fields as some villagers think.
“We know that we have not yet compensated the affected people but soon we will be giving them their money so that they can peacefully relocate. We couldn’t start demolishing their houses,” said Ndau
President Peter Mutharika officially launched the project on March 21, 2015 and Livingstonia Synod of the Church of Central African Presbyterian (CCAP) has been pushing for the commencement of the actual work.
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