Friday, January 11, 2013

Call to divide Tanga into two regions


Development stakeholders in Tanga want their region to be divided into two administrative areas.
Tanga regional commissioner Chiku Gallawa


Presenting a paper during a Regional Consultative Council (RCC) meeting here, the Tanga Region Local Government Authority Officer, Yohana Miwa, said they had been advised by the previous meeting to seek the best way of dividing the region.


He said the team of experts from the region’s secretariat has gone through it and came up with a proposal which will help to push the agenda into high decision making bodies.The move came up on the grounds that Tanga Region, which has about 27,348 square kilometres, is administratively costly to run due to its size.


“There are steps to be followed before demanding for a new administrative location, on this, we experts have been satisfied that this region should be divided into two – we are tabling this paper to you for further discussion,” he said.


According to him, Tanga Region has eight administrative districts and nine council authorities, thus the division would easy administration and supervision costs.


He, however, notified Tanga development stakeholders that what they tabled and all discussions and debates to be done were part of a proposal, but the last decision is in the hands of the president, who has the constitutional mandate to divide any part of the country.


He urged the regional development stakeholders to join in the matter, so that the region would be divided for the sake of rapid development for the benefit of ‘wananchi.’


Contributing to the proposal, the Deputy Minister for Science and Technology, January Makamba, said that the question of dividing the region into two was something unavoidable for the present situation, as ‘wananchi’ have been forcing and highly demanding for rapid development.


According to Makamba, the move would push administrative services closer to the public, the measures which could expedite the development process.


“The aim of the government in establishing many other new regions and districts is to bring administration services near the general public….we cannot separate administration and development matters,” he suggested.


Commenting on the matter, the Tanga Regional Commissioner, Ms Gallawa, said that the question of dividing the region was a good proposal in view of social and economic development, thus all stakeholders should strongly support the move.


“I have never failed to run this region, but what I am supporting here is on the ground and facts that if the administrative location is small, it is easy for supervision and social service provision…so let us consider it in this way,” she said.The proposal will be forwarded to the Ministry of Regional Administration and Local Government for further negotiation with the ministry’s experts.

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